Manchester City earned their first win of the Women’s Super League season with a classy display at Everton. Georgia Stanway’s powerful drive from outside the area put City ahead early on, before Everton’s Claudia Walker had a low shot turned around a post.

After the break, a pair of clinical close-range finishes from England’s Nikita Parris extended the lead. The Scotland winger Claire Emslie lifted the ball into the roof of the net to add a fourth in the closing stages.

England’s captain Steph Houghton, whose husband Stephen Darby announced his retirement at Bolton on Tuesday, aged 29, after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease, nearly scored in the first half, but her well-struck, curling free-kick dropped just wide.

After drawing 0-0 at Chelsea on the opening weekend, Thursday’s win took City’s tally to four points from their first two games.

For Everton, the defeat was their second from two matches without scoring, following their narrow loss on 9 September at Birmingham City.