West Ham United Women 1-3 Manchester City Women: Unbeaten City go top of WSL
- Published
Nikita Parris' 12th league goal of the season sealed the points for Manchester City late on
Manchester City pounced on Arsenal's slip-up to go top of the Women's Super League with victory at West Ham.
First-half goals from Caroline Weir and Lauren Hemp helped unbeaten City leapfrog the Gunners, who lost 2-1 at home to Chelsea earlier on Sunday.
Ex-City striker Jane Ross pulled one back for West Ham but Nikita Parris' 12th of the season made the game safe.
The win put City top for the first time this season, a point above the Gunners, who have a game in hand.
Both of City's goals came from balls in behind the West Ham defence as Weir raced clear to fire past keeper Anna Moorhouse, who was later beaten by Hemp's delightful chipped second.
City could have sealed the points after the break as Hemp again sprinted clear to prod past Moorhouse, but West Ham defender Gilly Flaherty raced back to clear off the line.
Ross gave her old club a nervy period with a cool finish but the WSL's all-time leading scorer Parris stroked home late on to ease any City worries.
West Ham, who drop to seventh, caused the visitors problems throughout the game, which was a much closer-fought affair than City's 7-1 win over the Hammers in October.
The hosts gave debuts to new signings Adriana Leon and Cho So-hyun but United's best chances fell to Alisha Lehmann, who missed two decent first-half opportunities to cancel out Weir's opener.
Man City forward Caroline Weir:
"We knew about the Arsenal result before we kicked off but we didn't think too much about that, we were just focused on ourselves.
"It was always going to be a tough game but we deserved the win. We're delighted with our performance in difficult conditions.
"West Ham had spells where they were on top of us but it's just about managing those and making sure you don't let them back into the game, and we did that well.
"The key was just taking our chances. When you score an early goal it sets you up for the rest of the match."
West Ham manager Matt Beard:
"We gave a good account of ourselves. We were arguably the better team.
"Apart from a few long balls in behind from City we contained them pretty well, but this week was probably just a week too soon for us because of the injuries we've got.
"We can take a lot of heart. Even our reaction to the third goal was fantastic, it just shows this team has the mental character to respond to negative moments.
"We threw Adriana in at the deep end and she did well for someone making her debut. Cho was excellent when she came off the bench too."