WSL gameweek 4 awards: player of the week, record of the week, playmaker of the week & more
By Ali Rampling
There was a selection of WSL action for fans to sink their teeth into over the weekend, with six games, 14 goals and quite a lot of rain.
Arsenal and Manchester United both maintained their flawless starts to the campaign to leave nothing to chose between the pair at the league summit, while Reading and Leicester remain without a point.
Here's the best of the action with 90min's WSL awards for gameweek four.
Player of the week: Bunny Shaw
Bunny Shaw netted her second brace in as many weeks to take her to the top of the WSL goal scoring charts and lead Manchester City to a 3-0 victory over Tottenham.
The first goal was vintage Shaw; instinctive movement across the front post to give marker Eveliina Summanen the slip and power home a header from Chloe Kelly's corner. Her second was a superb solo effort, picking up the ball on the edge of the box and arrowing a low drive into the bottom corner.
"She is a beast, man!" City full-back Kerstin Casparij enthused at full time. "She is so good. How many goals has she scored now? Five? That's a lot, she's doing really, really well. She's a big asset for us."
Record of the week: Arsenal
Having broken the WSL clean sheet record last time out against Reading, Arsenal are on the cusp of another piece of league history following their 2-0 victory over Liverpool.
The Gunners' win was their 12th consecutive victory in the top flight, matching the WSL's all-time record for successive wins.
Arsenal currently share the WSL's consecutive win record with Man City, who registered the same number of victories on the bounce between December 2020 and April 2021. Arsenal have also previously notched up 12 successive WSL wins between May and November 2018. Should they beat West Ham next Sunday, the record will be exclusively theirs.
Playmaker of the week: Melisa Filis
Melisa Filis was handed her first WSL start of the season on Sunday - only drafted into the West Ham lineup following an injury to Emma Snerle on the Saturday - and she turned in an electric display.
Filis created West Ham's first and third goals courtesy of a pinpoint delivery onto the head of DagnĂ˝ BrynjarsdĂłttir, and a perfectly weighted through ball to send Viviane Asseyi scurrying through.
It completed a fantastic first half performance from West Ham against Reading, as they found themselves 3-0 up at the break, before surviving a late Royals' fight back to run out 3-2 winners.
"I thought Mel Filis was fantastic today," Paul Konchesky told whufc.com. "She got two assists this afternoon, which was fantastic for her and I thought she worked incredibly hard in the midfield for the team.Â
"To be 3-0 up at the break showed how well we played in that first-half. Like I’ve said many times, I want my teams to get after it from the first whistle, and they’re doing that and starting matches fast and strongly at the moment."Â
Important goal of the week: Nikita Parris
Nikita Parris' move to Manchester United this summer received a mixed reception from supporters. The forward has a proud scoring record in the WSL and for England, is a Champions League winner with Lyon and is capable of operating on either flank or through the middle.
However, having seen limited minutes at Arsenal under Jonas Eidevall (a manager who did not sign her), not all United fans were convinced Parris was the player they needed to help the club finally break into the Champions League.
Parris opened her United account with a spectacular goal in the Continental Cup at the beginning of October, and has led the line for United in their last two league matches in the absence of the injured Alessia Russo.
The 28-year-old got off the mark in the WSL for United against Leicester on Sunday - an important goal for both the club and her. The bullet header proved to be the game's decisive moment in United's narrow 1-0 victory over winless Leicester, and was Parris' first WSL goal from open play since she returned to the league in the summer of 2021. The goal moved Parris up to joint-sixth in the WSL's all-time top scoring charts.
Big win of the week: Chelsea
Having put in a huge, resilient shift to get the better of European heavyweights PSG in midweek, Chelsea faced bogey team Brighton just three days later in abject conditions on the south coast.
Chelsea have dropped points against Brighton in each of the last three seasons - only Arsenal have taken as many points off the Blues as the Seagulls have since the start of the 2019/20 campaign.
Chelsea took nearly an hour until they eventually made the breakthrough, and even after Beth England had stabbed home Niamh Charles' header to give the Blues the lead, they had Ann-Katrin Berger to thank for preserving their narrow advantage. Berger produced a pair of big saves to keep out Elisabeth Terland and Katie Robinson, before Pernille Harder slammed home a second for Chelsea with four minutes remaining.
The victory keeps Chelsea level on points with WSL leaders Arsenal and Manchester United - although the Blues have played a game more.