1) Clinical Miedema benefiting from Arsenal’s attacking wave

Vivianne Miedema has nine goals from five games this season, after her hat-trick against Reading. Now that she’s injury-free, she’s been super-clinical, the world-class striker she promised to be previously, and she’s benefiting from the attacking wave that is Arsenal. They’ve got attacking players like Lisa Evans and Beth Mead on the flanks, and then they flood players down the middle, like Jordan Nobbs and Daniëlle van de Donk. New goalkeeper Pauline Peyraud-Magnin is also a huge asset. She’s that new breed of goalkeeper, like Ederson – very comfortable in possession and starts attacks. Arsenal beat Reading 6-0 and their pressing was something to behold. They scored within two minutes in the first half, two minutes in the second half and right at the end of the first half – critical times to score. The way they’re blowing teams away is ruthless.

2) Stale Chelsea looking hesitant and downbeat

Chelsea drew again; 0-0 with Birmingham, and I think they may be suffering from still being in the Champions League. I don’t know if that’s entirely the cause but Manchester City have picked up their form massively since they went out, and obviously Arsenal don’t have European football. Maybe it’s also down to teams knowing what they’re up against and being able to counter what they do. World-class players like Ramona Bachmann, Fran Kirby, Ji So-yun, are just not doing it. They seem hesitant and downbeat and, in general, Chelsea appear to be going into games doubting their ability. They’re also missing the leadership of Katie Chapman since she retired, and maybe they’ve underestimated what the loss of her character would look like on the pitch.

• Match report: Birmingham 0-0 Chelsea

3) Birmingham inspired by matchwinner Berger

I want to give some credit to Birmingham: they’ve won four games, drawn one and only conceded in one, and that which was against Manchester City, when they lost 3-2. Manager Marc Skinner has organised his team really well, but while I might be slightly biased being a former goalkeeper, Ann-Katrin Berger has been an absolute stalwart for them. She’s the equivalent of Miedema in terms of a match-winner with the saves she’s pulled off, no more so than on Sunday when she saved Karen Carney’s penalty against Chelsea. She’s out of contract at the end of 2018 and Birmingham need to hold on to her. What she went through last season, taking time out because she was being treated for cancer, shows the strength of character she has. I can’t think that’s gone unnoticed with her teammates. You’ve got to be wowed and spurred on by how she’s returned to playing.

4) Stanway and Weir form City’s young core

Georgia Stanway got a hat-trick for Manchester City against Brighton, after she looks like the type of a young player (she’s only 19) they will build their team around for a long time to come. Alongside Stanway, Caroline Weir has had some mesmerising performances – she was a big part of the Scotland team who qualified for the World Cup for the first time, and she’s really benefited from moving to a full-time professional club. She played for Liverpool last season, where she didn’t really have the freedom to express what she’s about, but now having runners like Nikita Parris and Mel Lawley has brought to the forefront her quality. Weir was such an astute signing after Izzy Christiansen went to Lyon. She’s a little like Riyad Mahrez – her set-pieces and the weighting of her passes are unreal. Her left foot is carving those defences up, and for me she’s an early contender for player of the season.

The FA Women's Super League (@FAWSL) From goalkeeper to goal in 3 passes 😯



Stanway gets her hat-trick and @ManCityWomen lead 4-0 at Brighton



Last 15 minutes LIVE here 👉 https://t.co/0IW6e73B4x pic.twitter.com/pe0KoxN5Gh

5) Liverpool not letting off-pitch uncertainty affect them

At the start of the season Neil Redfearn left Liverpool because he wasn’t happy, not about the players but about the off-field set-up at the club. They’ve been getting a bit of stick in the press but the character of the girls has been amazing, grinding out 1-0 wins left, right and centre. They got another of those this weekend, when Courtney Sweetman-Kirk scored against West Ham. You could see how much the goal meant to the whole team. Sometimes players or teams make excuses, about how what happens off the pitch affects how they play on it, but it’s clear the group of players at Liverpool haven’t let all that other stuff impact their performance.

BT Sport has coverage of FA Women’s Super League all season. Watch Man City v Reading on BT Sport 1 this Friday, 26 October from 6.45pm.