1) What’s going on at Liverpool?

Liverpool’s 1-0 win at Brighton came at the end of a difficult week, in which Neil Redfearn quit as manager. Chris Kirkland, who had been the goalkeeping coach, became caretaker-manager but he was otherwise engaged on Sunday so Vicky Jepson took charge. WSL clubs should have a full-time goalkeeping coach and a manager with a Uefa A licence, and soon they might have neither. Redfearn’s departure suggests trouble behind the scenes, and it seems fair to ask whether Liverpool are fully committed to the women’s team. Why, for example, are the girls training at Tranmere? It’s not the end of the world, but it’s odd that they have to pay for training facilities out of their budget when at Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City and across the city at Everton they get full use of the club’s own facilities. The team proved at the weekend that their character is not in question, but from what I have heard the foundations are not as they should be at the club. Is the women’s team there because Liverpool feel they should have one, or because they are genuinely committed to women’s football?

• Brighton 0-1 Liverpool: As it happened

Daniëlle van de Donk hits hat-trick as Arsenal edge West Ham in thriller Read more

2) Arsenal flying high

Joe Montemurro was appointed last November, and at the start of his first full season his team are playing some delightful football. They have scored 16 goals in their three WSL matches so far, and on Sunday they beat West Ham 4-3 in a thriller. They have four of the core Dutch players from last year’s European Championship-winning team – one of them, Vivianne Miedema, scored a hat-trick against Liverpool on the opening weekend and another, Daniëlle van de Donk, scored three on Sunday – and the world-class Kim Little has also started impressively and was on the scoresheet against West Ham. They have gelled together beautifully and are playing sublime stuff – if you want to watch class-apart women’s football at this moment in time you’ve got to get yourself to Borehamwood to see Arsenal. They weren’t considered the frontrunners this season, but now they are the team to beat.

• Match report: Arsenal 4-3 West Ham

3) New kids on the block

West Ham were the only club not already playing in the top two divisions to get a WSL licence when the league was restructured, which meant they would face a massive task, particularly in the first few weeks of the season, to acclimatise in the top flight. They recruited excellently, bringing in the likes of Claire Rafferty and the captain, Gilly Flaherty, and the core of their team is already very strong. In only their second league game they travelled to Arsenal, who had won their first two league matches 5-0 and 7-0, went toe-to-toe with the league’s form side, took the lead twice and eventually went down 4-3. Matt Beard took over as manager in July and his team are obviously enjoying themselves. They’re exciting, they’re new, they’re fresh, and they seem to be going about things in the right manner.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Claire Rafferty was on target at Arsenal and looks to be an excellent signing for WSL newcomers West Ham. Photograph: Avril Husband/West Ham United via Getty Images

4) Berger’s brilliance for Blues

Last November Ann-Katrin Berger, the Birmingham City goalkeeper, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She went through treatment and was back on the pitch two months later, her standards as high as ever. At the end of the season she was named the joint WSL players’ player of the year, along with Manchester City’s Jill Scott. She is an absolute inspiration and her heroics in goal have helped her team to a perfect start to the season: three games, three goals, three clean sheets, and nine points. Blues lost their striker Rachel Williams last week to a cruciate ligament injury sustained in training and they’re maybe a bit threadbare up top, which is why they’re not scoring as many goals as they might. So far it hasn’t mattered. As a goalkeeper myself I might be a bit biased, but the saves Berger made at Reading on Sunday as good as gave her team two points. I don’t think they’re likely to challenge for the title but at the moment they are causing upsets, and it is good to see that we have another team, like Reading and Bristol City, capable of upsetting the big three.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Birmingham players and staff celebrate on the pitch at Adams Park after their third successive 1-0 win of the WSL season. Photograph: Kunjan Malde for The FA/Rex/Shutterstock

5) Will Manchester City and Chelsea pay for pacing themselves?

At the end of last season both Chelsea and City would have looked back and wondered if they might have had more success had they gone about the campaign a little differently. Both found their form falling away towards the end of the season, particularly in the Champions League, where they both lost in the semi-finals. Perhaps they are pacing themselves a little this season, but so far their results have been unconvincing. City battled back with two goals in the last seven minutes to claim a 2-2 draw at home to Bristol City on Sunday, while Chelsea have yet to score or concede in the league, drawing 0-0 at Everton. Both are at home in the Champions League this week, games which might have been on their minds, and they have had a lot of fixtures to cope with already. But with Arsenal hitting the ground running, will their poor form in these early days of the season come back to bite them?

• Rachel Brown-Finnis is an analyst for BT Sport, which has coverage of FA Women’s Super League all season. Watch Chelsea v Arsenal on BT Sport 1 on 14 October. BT Sport has live coverage of the Lionesses v Brazil (6 Oct) and Australia (9 Oct).