Arsenal Women
Vivianne Miedema scored her third hat-trick of the season as Arsenal Women kept the pressure on Women’s Super League leaders Manchester City with a 4-0 win over Bristol City at Meadow Park.
The Gunners, who are second in the table but still have two games in hand on the leaders, raced into the lead thanks to Miedema’s opening score.
That goal will have come as a welcome relief to the striker who, despite her impressive hat-trick statistics, has failed to score in her previous three Arsenal appearances.
Miedema’s early goal gave Arsenal the confidence to dominate a first half in which Bristol defender Gemma Evans kept the visitors in the game with some fine acrobatics, clearing Danielle van de Donk’s shot off the line.
Bristol nearly managed to undo all of the Gunners’ first-half hard work, however, and only magnificent diving save from Pauline Peyraud-Magnin denied them.
But that moment kicked the home side back into life. Miedema grabbed her second shortly after Peyraud-Magnin’s save before Katie McCabe put the result beyond doubt.
Considering the state of play at half time, Bristol will be disappointed with how easily the game got away from them, but the emphatic nature with which Miedema latched onto the end of Lisa Evans’s delivery to complete her hat-trick proved that Arsenal were deserving winners.
The Gunners are next in action on Sunday 24 March, when they face Liverpool at Prenton Park, with kick-off at 12.30pm.
Arsenal
The future looks bright at the Emirates Stadium as Arsenal maintained their handsome lead at the top of the Under-18 Premier League with a 5-2 win over bottom-placed West Ham at the Little Heath Sports Centre.
Centre-forward Folarin Balogun scored a brace to take his season goal tally to 22 across all competitions as Arsenal remained four points clear of second-placed Tottenham Hotspur.
The Gunners, who have not lost in the Under-18 Premier League since November 2018, blasted the home side away with a virtuoso first-half performance which left them 3-0 up at half time thanks to goals from Zak Swanson, Balogun, and Joel Lopez, the latter’s first goal for the club.
The red tide did not show signs of subsiding as Mark McGuinness found the net shortly after the interval, while 17-year-old Balogun added his second shortly after.
At 5-0 down, it threatened to get embarrassing for West Ham but, to their credit, they fought back to score two late consolation goals through Emmanuel Longelo and a McGuinness own goal.
Next up is Swansea City on Saturday 30 March. The match will take place at London Colney with kick-off at 11am.
