Dominant Arsenal cut gap at top after Foord leads WSL rout against Leicester | Women’s Super League

Two goals from Caitlin Foord and one apiece from Stina Blackstenius, Beth Mead and Victoria Pelova secured a 5-1 win for Arsenal against Leicester and moved the London side to within three points of the Women’s Super League leaders, Chelsea, albeit having played a game more.

It was stylish and entertaining from Renée Slegers’s side and the manager praised the players for putting on a show. “Entertainment is important,” she told Sky Sports. “We’re a big club, a big brand, we play to win but I also feel a responsibility to play in a way that is entertaining because we want people to support what we’re doing and we want it to be inspiring. That’s important for me.”

Arsenal were punished in the latest international break, with the forwards Chloe Kelly and Alessia Russo forced to withdraw from the England squad through injury; it was “a little early” for the duo to return to face Leicester, Slegers said. The goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar is a more long-term absentee after she sustained an ankle injury in the Netherlands’ 1-0 win over Austria.

Despite the disruption, Arsenal were rampant against the Foxes and opened the scoring inside 10 minutes with Frida Maanum swinging the ball towards the back post, where Foord was on hand to turn in her first.

Amandine Miquel’s Leicester have been much improved in the new year, having emerged from a crippling injury crisis that decimated their forward line in the first half of the season. However, while they have pulled seven points clear of bottom‑placed Crystal Palace, they have the worst away record in the league with just two points on the road.

Any hopes that the side could improve that number against Arsenal, who have their Champions League semi‑final first leg against Lyon on Saturday, were quickly squashed as the hosts turned the screw. Slegers’s team had collected 17 wins and three draws from the 20 games in which they had scored first this season, and there was no sign of that changing in N5.

Miquel said Slegers’s management had “brought life” to Arsenal after replacing Jonas Eidevall. “She has found a way to have the players behind her, following her,” she said. “She has completely changed the team with the same players, which shows that the manager is very important.”

Seven minutes after the opener the home team doubled their lead, Foord the instigator this time. The Australian turned and played the ball to the right where Mead swung a cross in for Blackstenius to send beyond the goalkeeper, Janina Leitzig.

Just after the half-hour they had a third, Foord shifting on to her right foot before lashing a deflected effort past a wrongfooted Leitzig.

It was the first half Arsenal needed, one that allowed them to rotate and manage loading before two tricky Champions League encounters with the eight-time European champions. Among those entering the fray was Pelova, making her third substitute appearance as she is eased back after her lengthy spell out with an anterior cruciate ligament injury.

The home team extended their lead to four when Kim Little danced into the box before sending a pinpoint cross towards the head of Mead, who powerfully headed the ball down and in. They were denied their clean sheet, though, with Yuka Momiki’s effort from the edge of the box rolled into the bottom corner.

The party mood returned when Leicester failed to clear after Katie McCabe’s free-kick came back off an upright and Pelova was on hand to curl in at the far post.

It was an impressive Champions League warmup for the Gunners, with four players on the scoresheet and many legs rested and rotated.

Miquel, who is French, said of Arsenal’s chances against Lyon: “If you ask me right now, overall, Arsenal are the better team. Lyon focuses too much on individuals, if you block those individuals you can stop their chance at scoring.”