The opening weekend of the new Barclays FA Women’s Super League season had just about everything with the six games providing all of the excitement needed to impress the increased audience.
There were five home wins while last season’s runners-up Manchester City were the only winners on the road as they defeated Everton 4-0 at Goodison Park.
In total, 17 goals were scored over the course of the weekend, an average of 2.83 goals per game. FAWSL Full-Time have analysed the facts and figures behind the weekend’s goals and here is our summary of what happened when the ball hit the back of the net.
Of the 17 goals scored, just one player netted more than once, that player being Arsenal’s Beth Mead (brace). The goals were shared amongst players from eight different nations. English players were understandably the top scorers with seven goals while players from Scotland, Spain and The Netherlands contributed two goals. The other four goals came from players from Canada, Denmark, South Korea and Jamaica.
The youngest goalscorer of the weekend was Spanish full-back Ona Batlle who netted Manchester United’s second goal against Reading aged at 22 years and 88 days. Manchester City defender Steph Houghton curled in that stunning free-kick at Everton aged 33 years and 136 days making her the oldest goalscorer of the opening weekend.
Players who played the full 90 minutes for their respective clubs contributed 11 of the weekend’s 17 goals. The earliest goal time came at The Emirates Stadium as Arsenal forward Vivianne Miedema netted against Chelsea after just 14 minutes. Surprisingly, Houghton’s 67th-minute free-kick was the latest goal scored in any of the six games. The first half of matches produced the most goals with 10 of the 17 being netted before the interval. The period between 30 and 45 minutes produced almost half of the weekend’s goals (eight).
The Barclays FA Women’s Super League continues next weekend with the second round of matches before the early season international break.