Well, Matchweek 5 certainly wasn't short of goals, drama, strange scorelines and a couple of results that might require the football equivalent of calling Ryder and the pups. Seven games. Twenty-seven goals. Manchester City still perfect. Chelsea still unbeaten. London City Lionesses absolutely rampant. Brighton finally winning. Arsenal down in 10th. PAW Patrol references are going to be scattered through this review because I feel like it. If you don't like the references, tough. I may have autism but I do me and you do you. Right then. PAW Patrol is on a roll, and apparently so was the BWSL. --- MANCHESTER UNITED 1-0 LIVERPOOL Manchester United celebrated the 250th game in their history with three points. Julia Zigiotti Olme intercepted Khiara Keating's pass and lobbed her for the only goal, while Phallon Tullis-Joyce ended up making eight saves. Liverpool actually produced 14 shots and 1.41 xG, but couldn't convert any of it. For United, you could say Chase was on the case. They got their early lead and then defended it properly. That's back-to-back league wins for Eva Olid's side and their first clean sheet of the season. Sometimes you don't need fireworks. These paws uphold the laws. Get the goal, protect the lead, take the points. --- ASTON VILLA 1-1 CRYSTAL PALACE Villa are still looking for their first BWSL victory of the season, although this was a much more positive performance. Noelle Maritz scored her first-ever BWSL goal after Chasity Grant broke down the right and supplied the ball across. Then Abbie Larkin produced Palace's answer from outside the box. Both sides had chances to win it late on, but Pauline Peyraud-Magnin denied Miri Taylor in stoppage time. One point each. No job is too big, no pup is too small, but apparently finding that first Villa league win is still quite a sizeable mission. --- BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION 5-1 CHARLTON ATHLETIC Charlton actually scored first after three minutes through Cassandra Korhonen. Unfortunately for them, Brighton then went completely "I'm fired up!" Kiko Seike equalised and eventually scored twice. Fran Kirby put Brighton ahead before half-time, with Maisie Symonds and Gabby George adding two more in second-half stoppage time. Olivia Garcia didn't score, but she was involved everywhere: 15 touches in the opposition box, four shots and three chances created. Brighton's first league win of the season. Charlton, meanwhile, have lost all five. For Brighton: green means go. For Charlton: somebody might want to locate the brakes. --- EVERTON 2-1 BIRMINGHAM CITY Ruby Mace against one of her former clubs. Of course. Mace scored both Everton goals, with Océane Hurtré equalising in between and continuing her excellent individual start to the season with her fifth league goal. The winner took a couple of deflections before ending up in the top corner, but Everton will not care about that. Rubble on the double? More like Ruby on the double. Everton are up to fifth with nine points from 15, while Birmingham are still searching for their first league victory after promotion. Sometimes you've just got to dig it. --- TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1-6 LONDON CITY LIONESSES Excuse me? Spurs came into this unbeaten and as one of the stories of the early season. London City left with SIX. Alexia Putellas scored twice. Kadidiatou Diani scored twice. Daniëlle van de Donk scored. Delphine Cascarino scored. Victoria Pelova got Spurs' consolation and moved onto five league goals, but that was pretty much where the good news ended. London City's 5.2 xG was reportedly the highest by an away side in a BWSL match since Arsenal recorded 5.9 against Leicester in November 2023. Their biggest BWSL victory. Four wins from five. Into the top three. Spurs' unbeaten start: gone. If this were Mighty Pups, London City didn't merely get their powers. They found the meteor, charged themselves up and then apparently refused to switch the thing off. Mighty Pups are on a roll indeed. --- WEST HAM UNITED 0-3 CHELSEA This was domination. Melvine Malard opened the scoring, Keira Walsh added the second and Maika Hamano scored the third on her first start of the season. But the extraordinary statistic belongs to West Ham. Zero shots. Zero touches inside Chelsea's penalty area. According to the official roundup, they became the only side across the last ten BWSL seasons to finish a game with neither a shot nor a touch in the opposition box. Chelsea had 21 shots. At that point, I'm not even reaching for "This pup's gotta fly." I'm calling Air Rescue. Chelsea remain unbeaten and head into the international break second. --- MANCHESTER CITY 4-2 ARSENAL And then came the 1,500th match in BWSL history. It delivered. Arsenal led TWICE. Lisa Baum made it 1-0. Lauren Hemp equalised. Alessia Russo capitalised on a Yui Hasegawa mistake and restored Arsenal's advantage. Then the whole thing turned. Kerstin Casparij came off the bench and scored with her first touch, just 70 seconds after being introduced. Hemp scored again. Khadija Shaw finished it off. 4-2. Five wins from five for Manchester City. They are now the only BWSL side with a 100% record. Arsenal? 10th. One league win all season, and that came on the opening weekend. City were basically operating under Zuma rules: let's dive in. Arsenal might want Rocky instead, because something needs fixing — and preferably before "Green means go" turns into "Green means go... big" for somebody else. The strange thing is that Arsenal weren't simply terrible for 90 minutes. They twice put themselves in winning positions against the league leaders. They just couldn't hold either of them. And against this Manchester City side, that's dangerous. Once City smell weakness, this pup's gotta fly. Or, considering the way the second half developed, perhaps the newer Jungle Pups version is more appropriate: this puppy's gotta fly like a falcon. --- AFTER FIVE MATCHWEEKS Manchester City: perfect. Chelsea: unbeaten. London City Lionesses: looking increasingly serious. Tottenham: brought very abruptly back to Earth. Everton: quietly fifth. Brighton: finally off the mark. Villa and Birmingham: still waiting. Charlton: five games, five defeats. Arsenal: 10th. International break time. Whenever you're in trouble, just yelp for help. A few clubs might want Ryder's number. Tomorrow: BWSL2 MATCHWEEK 5 REVIEW. And yes, the PAW Patrol references may return. You've been warned.   submitted by   /u/MonthRemarkable9919 [link]   [comments]