Arsenal regained 3rd park within the Ladies’s Tremendous League desk with a mean victory over Brighton to book their pursuit of Champions League qualification heading in the right direction.

They led 2-0 inside 8 mins in Brighton thru Stina Blackstenius.

Frida Maanum and Victoria Pelova added to their tally prior to half-time.

Having unhidden Manchester Town lose to Liverpool on Sunday, Arsenal knew victory would severely spice up their hopes of securing a top-three park within the desk and book them mathematically in rivalry for the name.

They were given off to the easiest get started when Blackstenius coolly positioned within the opener next beating Zoe Morse at the left-hand facet, prior to including a 2nd when she pounced on a pricey defensive error.

The Swede will have to have had a hat-trick inside half of an future. She had a objective wrongly dominated out for offside, crash the crossbar with a header from a couple of yards out and after fired into the side-netting.

However targets persevered to current from in other places for Arsenal as Maanum’s header added a 3rd and Pelova’s tough hit flew presen goalkeeper Megan Walsh on the related submit to build it 4-0.

Arsenal’s dominance persevered all through the second one half of towards a Brighton facet who aren’t but guard from relegation, even though they’re 5 issues above base membership Studying with two video games left.

Brighton have stepped forward underneath unused supervisor Melissa Phillips however they have got shipped 10 targets and stored only one blank sheet of their presen 5 WSL video games.

Blackstenius and Pelova gleam as Brighton uncovered

Given what’s at stake within the fight for Champions League qualification, Arsenal may now not manage to pay for to leave issues towards Brighton.

They had been dealt a dissipate prior to kick-off as key midfielder Lia Walti dropped out of the establishing XI within the warm-up thru infection however they confirmed disagree indicators of condition.

Goalscorer Pelova dropped into midfield to fill in and was once vastly notable, dictating play games and sporting the ball successfully from deeper positions.

Supervisor Eidevall was once filled with proclaim afterwards, telling Sky Sports activities: “For all young footballers, this is what happens when you have great technique.

“You’ll be able to be courageous at the ball and ask for it in tight areas. Victoria can play games fearlessly as a result of her admirable technical talent and he or she has admirable versatility.”

Striker Blackstenius was also in electric form in the first half, beating goalkeeper Megan Walsh twice and terrorising Brighton’s defence with her pace and movement.

It exposed the frailties which have led to Brighton being in a relegation battle for the past few months, though Phillips’ side improved in the second half and became harder to break down.

A win would have secured their safety in the WSL but it was always a tall order to beat an Arsenal side who have lost just three league games this season.

Walsh kept the scoreline down with strong saves to deny Kathrine Kuhl and a deflection from team-mate Kayleigh Green, while Brighton had chances at the other end through Elisabeth Terland and Libby Bance.

But with the game wrapped up by half-time, Eidevall was able to introduce forward Caitlin Foord fresh from her return from injury – a welcome addition for the final three games of the season.

There was also a debut for Arsenal’s Freya Godfrey, 18, and a first WSL appearance of the season for Teyah Goldie, 18, who suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury 14 months ago.