Gunners edged north London derby while new United manager put the brakes on Manchester City’s winning start

The penalty that allowed Arsenal to come from a goal behind to take the lead may have come with a healthy helping of luck, with the ball having come off Ella Morris’s raised arm as her teammate attempted to clear it, but it could prove to be the turning point Arsenal needed. “It’s been tough. We haven’t got the results we wanted,” penalty scorer Alessia Russo told the BBC afterwards. “This was an important win as far as north London derbies goes. It was really important and this was a great opportunity to try and turn it around.” It has taken seven games for the Gunners to secure their second league win of the season despite high hopes ahead of the new campaign and, while the result was a significant one, there is still a long way to go if Arsenal are to salvage anything from the most disappointing of starts. The performance against Tottenham was far from perfect and, in the first half in particular, sloppy and lacking fight. Tightening up their passing and harnessing the grit they found as they clung onto their lead towards the end of the match will be critical if they are to really kick on from this result. Suzanne Wrack

Another round of games and another disappointing draw for Arsenal while Manchester City sit top of the table with a 100% record

There would have been hope that the international break could offer the Arsenal players and staff a reset but the same problems reared their head at the Emirates on Sunday in a 1-1 draw with Birmingham. As they have done so often this season, the Gunners dominated most attacking and possession-based metrics – they registered 76% possession, a 2.73 xG and 43 touches in the opposition box – but their profligacy in front of goal and lack of urgency in their play once again came to the fore. Of their 27 chances, they managed just four on target as they toiled against a resilient opposition who understood the playbook. Birmingham set up in a strong defensive structure, protecting their box admirably with numbers to frustrate Renée Slegers’s side, who famously struggle to break down low blocks. In contrast, Birmingham scored with their one shot on target as Océane Hurtré took her impressive tally to six in six. Sophie Downey

Match report: Arsenal 1-1 Birmingham

Two goals each from a rampant Lauren James and battling Ellie Carpenter helped Chelsea to cruise past Tottenham and keep the pressure on Manchester City at the top of the Women’s Super League.

It was a thrilling statement from the home team, in a game laden with stunning goals after a first half in which Tottenham more than held their own.

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Spurs kick things off at Stamford Bridge.

Away we go, with the players out of the tunnel.

The Gunners’ title hopes look over after five games as draws continue from last season while the Seagulls, actually ninth, are third for expected points

The Women’s Super League table is taking shape for 2026-27. The defending champions, Manchester City, have five wins from five games but more intriguing stories lie elsewhere. Why are Arsenal struggling, who is performing better than results suggest, and in which way are two promoted teams smashing expectations? Here are three key data points.

There were plenty of encouraging signs for Chelsea as they claimed a valuable point in the Champions League on their head coach Sonia Bompastor’s return to face her former team OL Lyonnes.

The goalless draw was a slow-burner but concluded with a flurry of late action where both teams missed chances to steal the points. However a draw felt fair on a night when Chelsea’s double pivot of Keira Walsh and Lexi Potter in midfield continued to flourish, three days after they similarly impressed in Sunday’s victory over Arsenal.

Gunners lacked cutting edge again at Stamford Bridge while the former Barcelona star dominated against Brighton

How to solve the problem of an inability to take your chances? That is the question that will haunt the Arsenal head coach, Renée Slegers, over the coming days. In their 1-0 defeat by Chelsea, Arsenal applied more than enough pressure to make a difference, but in registering two of their 18 shots on target, a fundamental lack of ruthlessness remains. They dominated the opening stages at Stamford Bridge, but, as has often been the case this season, they were made to pay for their wastefulness. None of their nine first-half attempts troubled the goalkeeper, Hannah Hampton. Chelsea, however, had five of eight on target and scored just before half-time through Alyssa Thompson. “I wanted to keep it away from the players because they can score goals and they can finish and they will get the rewards for their work,” Slegers said. Solutions need to be found quickly. Sophie Downey

WSL roundup: Putellas scores first London City goal, Man City maintain perfect start

Arsenal’s title chances were dealt a significant blow after a narrow defeat at the hands of Chelsea. Alyssa Thompson’s first-half finish was the difference on a competitive afternoon at Stamford Bridge but one that ultimately left Renée Slegers with more questions than answers about how to save their season.

“Worried? No,” Slegers said. “Confidence is something that fluctuates. They know who they are and they know what they can bring. What’s important is that there’s always phases in the season and there’s different things you need to work on or focus on.

She left her Indian Ocean island home at the urging of Chelsea’s now-manager – now they’re working together again in pursuit of a Stamford Bridge legacy

It is rare to see Melvine Malard without a grin and she has a mountain of reasons to keep it that way. A wedding in June, a big-money move to Chelsea, a Ballon d’Or nomination and a first taste of a fiery London derby against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. The French forward is loving life and the personality behind the smile that instantly connects her to teammates is infectious.

“Goals,” says Malard, with a laugh, when asked what keeps her happy. “Seriously though, it’s seeing the kids, the families, my family, in the stands. It is crazy. I love my life, I love my job, I’m happy with my wife and everything is good. I smile because of those things, because I’m happy.”

Wieke Kaptein’s early goal gave Chelsea a winning start to their Champions League campaign proper against Austria Vienna, but it was a far from comfortable evening for them.

“Probably the performance is not the one we wanted to have,” Chelsea’s manager, Sonia Bompastor, said. “We could have controlled the game a little bit better in terms of scoring a second goal to kill the opposition’s hope, but sometimes you need to focus on what is most important and tonight that was to win and to take the three points from the game.”

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I’m not sure we’ll see Chelsea play 3-5-2 that often this season. It makes sense tonight because Vienna are playing it and, if teams match up, the better one tends to win; it also make sense given the players Sonia Bompastor has available.

Against Birmingham at the weekend, Chelsea set up in a 3-4-3 and there are three changes made to that XI: in net, Livia Peng replaces Hannah Hampton; at the back, Katie McCabe is on for Lucy Bronze; and up front, Melvine Malard comes in, with Wieke Kaptein dropping into midfield and Lexi Potter dropping to the bench.

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The teams are out. Kick-off is just a few moments away!

Ahead of today’s match, Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor said: “We need to keep the confidence and keep working hard. I spoke after the Villa game about the mentality, the mindset. It’s a huge part of being ruthless in the box. That game could have been easily 3-0 half-time, and we need to have that mentality when we have the opportunities to kill the game after 45 minutes to do that.

Promoted side’s thrilling win may be overturned after they used four substitutions windows while Georgia Stanway show the way for Gunners

Kirsty Howat’s 60-second cameo deep into injury time could ruin what was a memorable day for Crystal Palace on their return to the top flight. An impressive 1-0 victory over Everton was celebrated emphatically by Jo Potter and her players but that joy would have been replaced by concern and frustration not long after. On Sunday evening WSL Football revealed that there had been a breach of the rules – the Eagles used four different substitute windows rather than the regulated three – which had not been picked up by either the coaching staff or the match officials. An investigation has now been launched with punishment to be decided (there is a potential for the result to be overturned). The needless error has put a dampener on what should have been a positive afternoon thanks to England Under-23s forward Lexi Lloyd-Smith’s winner on her WSL debut. Sophie Downey

• Real Sociedad 0-1 Chelsea (agg 2-6)

• Keira Walsh scores at corner to settle tie

Chelsea ensured there will be three Women’s Super League teams in the league phase of the Champions League as Keira Walsh’s second-half strike against Real Sociedad extended their three-goal margin from the first leg of the third-round qualifier.

The 5-2 win against the Spanish side in Chelsea’s first game at Wimbledon’s Cherry Red Records stadium gave Sonia Bompastor’s side a commanding lead in the tie, after a rusty start had forced them to come from a goal down. It wasn’t a particularly pretty performance, though, and that continued into the second leg against La Real, who will now drop into the Europa League.

On Friday 4 September at 1pm Suzanne Wrack will be answering readers’ questions about the new WSL season for Guardian Conversations

Chelsea defender reflects on spending time with refugees in Colombia this summer and her passion for helping people on and off the pitch

Lucy Bronze does not stop. Her brain runs a hundred miles a minute. She does not need traditional entertainment. “I’m not good at watching TV – I can’t sit still,” Bronze says, sitting sort-of still, on a bench shielded from the wind, overlooking Chelsea’s training pitch at Cobham. “Someone recently asked me what I listen to in the car and someone else jumped in and was like: ‘Lucy has her own podcast going on in her own head.’ I don’t listen to music, I don’t listen to podcasts, I just have a million thoughts going on.”

Bronze’s late ADHD and autism diagnosis help it make sense, but her mum had always suspected she might have one of the conditions, so it wasn’t a surprise. “Naomi Girma said to me: ‘I’ve never met someone who trains so hard in the gym with zero music on; it does not make sense.’ I was like: ‘It’s literally in my head, I don’t need anything else.’”

• Third qualifying round, first leg: Chelsea 5-2 Real Sociedad

• Girma 29, Buurman 54, Malard 67 88, James 74; Marín 7, Marcos 59

Chelsea’s sluggish start in the first leg of their Champions League qualifier against Real Sociedad will have made far from satisfying viewing for their suspended head coach, Sonia Bompastor, but two goals from the new signing Melvine Malard contributed to a five-goal haul as the Blues came from behind to give themselves a three-goal cushion going into next week’s return fixture.

“It was a tough game, a tough first half because Real Sociedad is a really great team but I think we had a good reaction,” said Camille Abily, the assistant coach to Bompastor, who was serving a one match ban following her red card in Chelsea’s quarter-final second leg against Arsenal last season. “We were so much better in the second half, there was more space also. It’s a good win – a tough win but a good win.”

Detailed accounts highlight the growing financial might of the elite, and the challenges the rest of the division face

The financial figures for 2024-25, the most recent season available, for the eight Women’s Super League clubs who published detailed accounts illustrate a growing gulf between the rich and the poor. The Guardian breaks down the key numbers. Note, any figures exceeding £1m have been rounded to the nearest £10,000.

• WSL team will be favourites against Spanish side

• Financial implications of missing out are significant

Chelsea will face Real Sociedad in the Women’s Champions League’s third qualifying round, needing a victory over two legs to earn a place in the main league phase of the competition.

The 2021 runners-up and six-time European semi-finalists are taking part in the qualifying stage by virtue of their disappointing third-placed finish in the Women’s Super League last term – their lowest league finish since 2019 – and they will be the favourites against the Spanish side.

• United get club-record fee of about £850,000 for forward

• Malard follows McCabe and Matsukubo into Chelsea

Chelsea have announced the signing of the France forward Melvine Malard from Manchester United on a four-year contract. The Guardian revealed last week that a deal was close for the 26-year-old, who has left United after three seasons for about £850,000.

Malard had one year on her contract and United were keen to keep the forward. However, once it became clear Malard wanted a move United decided to sell rather than lose a high-value player on a free next summer.

• Fee for forward could be as high as £850,000

• The 26-year-old has one year remaining on contract

Chelsea are closing in on a deal to sign the France forward Melvine Malard from Manchester United for a fee that would be a club-record sale.

It is understood the transfer fee could be as high as approximately £850,000, although some sources have suggested the deal will be closer to £750,000. The discussions are understood to be at the final stage and the move is expected to go through.