1) Arsenal’s heavy artillery blowing teams away

The way Arsenal are brushing teams aside this season is reminiscent of their glory days. They have won every match, most of them with ease – their four league games include two 5-0 wins and a 7-0, and this week it was the reigning champions on the receiving end. The major difference this season is how clinical they have been in front of goal, with Vivianne Miedema, who has six goals and four assists already and scored another two at Chelsea, seeming unstoppable. Their best play comes down the middle, with Miedema combining with Kim Little and Jordan Nobbs to cut through their opponents. They only had 11 shots on Sunday, and seven on target, but five of those went in. They are getting the rub of the green in some situations – their third goal was a cross from Nobbs that flew straight in – but that kind of clinical chance conversion demonstrates the confidence bubbling through the team at the moment.

• Match report: Chelsea 0-5 Arsenal

Is it a cross? Is it a shot?@JordanNobbs8 doesn't care and neither do @ArsenalWFC



3-0 up away at Chelsea! 🔴 pic.twitter.com/zXPOZPeGid — Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) October 14, 2018

2) Chelsea’s shortcomings laid bare

If Chelsea wanted to know what their vulnerabilities were, they were laid bare by Arsenal. Last season they were reliant on being offensively dominant, which helped to make up for some defensive vulnerabilities. This season the attack isn’t clicking and not a lot has changed defensively. They actually had more shots than Arsenal, and five on target. Last season, when it was all very fluid, front-foot stuff, they would have converted a few of those, but the confidence has dried up. What is becoming increasingly apparent is that they miss the retired Katie Chapman massively, someone who could drag her team through games, pull them out of situations where they were spiralling towards defeat, someone who would literally do anything, put her body anywhere, to help her team. This season the captain’s armband has been handed around: Karen Carney and Hedvig Lindahl have led the team but both were on the bench this weekend, when Millie Bright got the honour. She’s a good organiser, but that’s a massive responsibility for a relatively young centre-half. The way the captaincy is being handed around suggests that the team is maybe lacking a clear leader.

• Chelsea v Arsenal: as it happened

3) Birmingham’s dazzling defence shows Skinner’s smarts

Marc Skinner’s side may not be free-scoring, but the results they are getting this season are remarkable. For the fourth time in five games they won 1-0, to remain level on points with Arsenal. They lost a few players in the off-season – Jess Carter went to Chelsea, and might be regretting that decision now – but Skinner has created a very hard-working, very organised, very disciplined team, and it’s great to see a young manager come in and have such an effect. Bristol City put numbers behind the ball and tried to shut them out, but despite missing a penalty Birmingham eventually came good. It must feel so great to think before the game, ‘Come on, try to beat us.’ Everyone must know their role so well, and as a team that must feel really powerful. Bristol didn’t have a single shot or win a single corner: Birmingham are just so rigid and organised, their defence is extremely hard to breach. There has been a big change since last season and though they have some excellent players – Meaghan Sargeant is emerging as a strong leader and an extremely good young centre-half – Skinner deserves most of the credit.

• From Roebuck to Salmon: 10 young English footballers to watch

The deadlock is broken! @aoifemannion_ fires home for @BCFCwomen after having her earlier penalty saved 🎯



Bristol City 0-1 Birmingham City (75') pic.twitter.com/nsQ3Uvb2vZ — The FA Women's Super League (@FAWSL) October 14, 2018

4) Weir flourishing as City rediscover their missing mojo

I remember going on a tour of Japan with Caroline Weir when she was 16 years old, and her quality was obvious even then. She was very young when she came through at Arsenal, then moved to Liverpool to play more first-team football, but since switching to Manchester City this summer her game has gone up a level. She seems now to be feeling the freedom to express herself as a footballer. She’s a craftsman, a set-piece specialist, someone with an eye for a pass and the ability to thread balls through. City beat West Ham 7-1 and Weir opened the scoring in the second minute and got a couple of assists. Put simply, if she has a good season then City will have a good season. After a disappointing start they have certainly got their mojo back, and perhaps it has also helped them that the likes of Nikita Parris and Steph Houghton have flourished on international duty and successfully brought that form back with them. With Chelsea at the moment it looks like players are drained when they come back from internationals, but City are proving that you can use those breaks to your benefit.

5) Yeovil have to look on the bright side

Last season Yeovil lost their first 12 league games without scoring a goal. In 10 league matches since then, across last season and this, they have got a couple of draws and scored four times. The table still doesn’t look very encouraging – after four games they have no points and a goal difference of -13 – but there is improvement there, there is progress. Lee Burch was appointed manager in the summer, and that is a heck of a job. Footballers want to win, whatever team they’re playing for, and Burch has to manage that disappointment, to somehow sustain morale, to take positives from games like Sunday’s 2-1 defeat at Liverpool and have them go into their next match feeling they could get something. They could have nicked a point on Sunday – it took an 87th-minute goal from Jess Clarke for Liverpool, with Chris Kirkland still in caretaker charge, to beat them – and this team hasn’t been in that position very often. Yeovil have had to make some huge changes to become a full-time professional team, and the amount of progress they have made in a short space of time has to be commended. Having scored in their first four games as many goals as they did in the whole of last season, they don’t look all that far away from getting a positive result to back that up.

• From ‘party girl’ to the Belgian top flight: Emma Coolen’s remarkable rise

BT Sport has coverage of the FA Women’s Super League all season. Watch Birmingham City v Chelsea on BT Sport 3 on 21 October, from 12.15pm.



