On a weekend of shocks in the Women's Super League, Arsenal avoided suffering the same fate as Chelsea or Manchester City as they closed the gap to the top two with a 1-0 victory over Liverpool on Sunday. After watching the Blues drop points for the first time all season in a draw with Leicester, and then City follow suit with a surprise loss at Everton, the Gunners' final league game before the winter break felt like it was all about getting the job done, and they did thanks to Alessia Russo's eighth goal in as many games.
Liverpool were much more solid at the back and threatening in attack compared to last week's performance against Manchester United, in which they were soundly beaten 4-0, and Olivia Smith had a decent chance to give them the lead early on in this game. But once Russo broke the deadlock instead with 20 minutes on the clock, pouncing on some poor defending from Katie McCabe's corner, it rarely felt like Arsenal would lose that lead.
There were some great chances for the Gunners to add to that scoreline, not least when Russo won a penalty that Mariona Caldentey could only strike against the upright, while the in-form Frida Maanum also surprisingly missed the target from inside the box in the early stages of the second half. Fortunately, none of those misses came back to bite them as they moved to within a point of second-placed Man City, and closed the gap to leaders Chelsea to seven.
GOAL rates Arsenal's players from St Helens Stadium...