Chelsea close the gap to Arsenal at the top of the table but Birmingham look doomed after narrow defeat by Leicester Sarah Rendell, Suzanne Wrack and Maryam Naz Mon 7 Feb 2022 11.24 GMT 25 Manchester City fail to rattle in-control Chelsea The Manchester City manager, Gareth Taylor, said his team deserved a point from Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to Chelsea. Perhaps they did and had Chelsea conceded there would have been few complaints with the final outcome. However, while City upped the ante in the later stages the home team did not at any point look rattled. This was a controlled Chelsea performance. One which denied potent wingers Lauren Hemp and Jess Park room and stopped the final pass reaching Khadija Shaw and, later, her replacement Ellen White. “I think we were diligent out of possession. Our defensive strategy was brilliant,” said Emma Hayes. “Our ability in the first half to take Man City to the spaces we wanted them to be in worked really, really well. Second half I made a change in terms of where I wanted them to go. I didn’t want [Alex] Greenwood on the ball as much.” Yes, City had spells of control, but these were managed spells, with Chelsea almost urging the visitors to come at them. SW Match report: Chelsea 1-0 Manchester City Everton defeat encapsulates a torrid season The nature of Everton’s defeat at home to Reading, throwing away a 1-0 lead to lose 2-1, accentuates the chaos surrounding the club. They fired Jean-Luc Vasseur last week, the second manager to be shown the door this season. And by exiling the former Lyon man they have probably ended any chance of success. Whoever is brought in – the former Scotland manager Shelley Kerr is among the rumoured replacements – to fill his shoes will not have enough time to bed in before the end of the season. They are 19 points off the top of the table and 14 outside of Champions League qualification spots. Sacking Willie Kirk seemed a strange decision back in October and it has been the downfall of their 2021-22 campaign. SR Everton sack Jean-Luc Vasseur after 10 games in charge Big-game player Russo steps up for United Look up the definition of big-game player in the Oxford dictionary and you, uh, won’t find anything. That’s not how the dictionary works. Anyway, here’s Manchester United’s Alessia Russo. The attacker has scored four goals this season and they’ve all come against the big teams – Chelsea, Arsenal (twice) and Manchester City. So, when her team faced off against the league leaders Arsenal on Saturday, it came as no surprise she got her side’s goal. Russo was a menace to deal with from the onset, especially for Arsenal’s left-sided defender Katie McCabe, who was faced the full brunt of the United forward’s prowess and was eventually sent off for two yellow card offences. Russo nodded United ahead from Katie Zelem’s pinpoint corner for the opener – a set-piece move that their manager, Marc Skinner, called “brilliant”. Arsenal equalised late in the game through Stina Blackstenius but Russo’s efforts meant the leaders dropped two crucial points in the title run-in. MN Match report: Arsenal 1-1 Manchester United Brighton’s spark fizzles out Advertisement The opening stages of the season gave rise to talk of Brighton qualifying for the Champions League with results going well. But those discussions have stopped and for good reason. Hope Powell’s side lost 4-0 to Tottenham on Sunday, extending their winless run to seven league matches for the first time. They have scored just one goal in that period. “We were below par even though we had a lot of the ball,” Powell said after the latest defeat. “We didn’t create enough. The goals were disappointing. If you become easy to beat, you’re going to lose the game.” She is not wrong. Spurs, on the other hand, continue to push for the third Champions League spot and are just a point behind Manchester United. SR Emma Hayes and Gareth Taylor call for expansion of WSL Over and out for Birmingham? A disastrous afternoon for Birmingham City may have gone a long way towards sealing their relegation fate as Leicester, the team they lost to, are now five points above them at the foot of the table. Birmingham were the architects of their own demise as goalkeeper Emily Ramsey was shown a red card in the 26th minute for bringing down Jess Sigsworth. It had been a fairly even match until that point but Sigsworth scored the resulting penalty and Leicester went on to win the game 2-1. It’ll be a tough task for Birmingham to stay up now with Leicester finding form. Last season the Blues ended with 14 points from 22 matches (0.64 points per game) to narrowly avoid relegation. This time around they have four from 14 games (0.29). It is not looking good. SR New maternity and injury cover deal for female footballers revealed West Ham’s Stringer ends goal drought Abbey-Leigh Stringer had a game to remember in West Ham’s 2-1 win over Aston Villa. The midfielder, who joined the Hammers from Everton in the summer, poked home her first goal for West Ham, her first in the WSL for three seasons. It wasn’t the prettiest strike, with Villa’s keeper Hannah Hampton bundling the ball to the floor after a corner. A flurry of players tried to gain possession but Stringer got the decisive touch. It is a fine line between hero and villain though and Stringer nearly got sent off. A yellow card for a challenge on Jill Scott was followed by a sliding tackle on Mayumi Pacheco that could well have earned a second. SR Pos Team P GD Pts 1 Arsenal Women 13 26 30 2 Chelsea Women 12 24 28 3 Man Utd Women 13 14 25 4 Tottenham Hotspur Women 13 6 24 5 Reading Women 12 2 22 6 Man City Women 13 9 20 7 West Ham Women 13 3 20 8 Brighton & Hove Albion Women 14 -9 16 9 Aston Villa Women 13 -19 13 10 Everton Women 12 -11 11 11 Leicester Women 14 -18 9 12 Birmingham City Women 14 -27 4