Manchester City v Arsenal: Women’s Super League – live

GOALS! Aston Villa 1-0 Crystal Palace (Maritz 56); Brighton 3-1 Charlton (Seike 54)

Aston Villa, hitherto winless in the WSL, have taken the lead against Crystal Palace through Noelle Maritz.

Renée Slegers says she has felt the full support of Arsenal’s board and praised her senior players for showing “monumental leadership” this week as she vows to find solutions to recent poor form before Sunday’s pivotal trip to Manchester City.

One win in five matches has put Slegers under mounting pressure. Arsenal let slip a two-goal lead to draw at Paris FC in the Women’s ­Champions League on Wednesday and in the WSL they have slipped seven points behind City, the ­leaders and defending champions, having scored only twice in their four league games.

Slegers was in a determined mood on Friday, speaking of a “strong togetherness” at the club. Asked whether she felt the full support of the board, she replied: “Yes, that’s what I felt. That’s been positive and that’s helped me. The club’s leadership has been really good and positive for me in this moment because everyone thinks this is a difficult time and this is not something that we want for the team and for the club.

“But the leadership from Clare [Wheatley, the director of football], Rich [Garlick, CEO], James [King, director of football operations], Jodie [Taylor, technical director] has been superb. So I want to give everything back to the club.

WSL half-time scores

The five 2pm games will resume any second now. These are the half-time scores:

• Aston Villa 0-0 Crystal Palace

• Brighton 2-1 Charlton

• Everton 1-1 Birmingham

• Tottenham 0-3 London City Lionesses

• West Ham 0-1 Chelsea

Alexia Putellas has scored twice for London City Lionesses, who are 3-0 up at Spurs. Chelsea lead at West Ham thanks to a goal from Melvine Malard.

Hello and welcome to live, minute-by-minute coverage of the WSL match between Manchester City and Arsenal at th- hang on, is that a flipping pachyderm over there? The elephant in the room, or at least in the build-up to today’s game, is the extent to which City’s women’s team will be indirectly affected by you know what.

There’s no direct link, nor any suggestion that City will be investigated by the WSL. City’s manager Andree Jeglertz says it’s “business as usual”, but morale is morale and image is image. The ferocity of the external condemnation will surely have some impact. In the short-term that impact could be positive, strengthening the women’s team determination to retain their title.

It’s impossible to speak with authority on the subject, so let’s move on to a different subject: the actual football. (What do you mean we can’t speak with authority on that either?) This is a pretty big game between last season’s top two; and for Arsenal, it has an uncomfortable amount riding on it.

City, the reigning champions, have four wins from four games and are already seven points clear of Arsenal, who were eighth in the table at the start of play. They’ve had a rough start to the season, not helped by a sadistic fixture computer that served up Chelsea and both Manchester clubs in the first five games.

Defeat at the Etihad would leave Arsenal 10 points behind City and with a mountain to climb. A mountain even bigger than that elephant over there.