Manchester City need a maximum of five points from their final three Women’s Super League games to win the title after easily dispatching Manchester United in a 3-0 derby win.
City arrived at Old Trafford knowing a victory would guarantee they finish above their rivals, leaving Arsenal as the only team with a semi-realistic hope of denying them the crown.
And they were utterly dominant from the off, with Lauren Hemp firing against the crossbar from distance before Vivianne Miedema scored two headers in as many minutes.
Miedema got across her marker to nod Alex Greenwood’s corner in for City’s 17th-minute opener, then planted a right-wing delivery from Kerstin Casparij beyond Phallon Tullis-Joyce with United all at sea from the visitors’ next attack.
In truth, the Red Devils were fortunate to avoid going into half-time facing an embarrassing deficit, with Rebecca Knaak’s towering header being harshly disallowed for an apparent foul by Yui Hasegawa, while Khadija Shaw also went close on two occasions.
City only needed four minutes to strike again after half-time as a lovely move resulted in Hemp being released down the left, and her cross was turned in by the unmarked Casparij at the far post.
With United showing signs of fatigue after Wednesday’s 3-2 Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich, Andree Jeglertz’s team almost added a fourth in stoppage time, when Shaw drilled wide of Tullis-Joyce’s right-hand post.
United were left chasing shadows as they suffered their first WSL defeat since the reverse fixture in November – having gone nine matches unbeaten in the intervening period.
Data Debrief: Miedema makes double-digit history as City dominate
Miedema’s first-half brace saw her reach 10 goals in the WSL this term, making her the first player in the competition’s history to hit double figures in five different seasons.
With Arsenal, she previously scored 22 goals in 2018-19, 16 in 2019-20, 18 in 2020-21 and 14 in 2021-22, with this the first time the WSL’s all-time leading scorer has reached 10 goals in a campaign since leaving the Gunners.
City have now achieved their second WSL double over United, having won the reverse fixture 3-0 (also doing the double in 2023-24), and they thoroughly deserved the win.
They outshot United by 15 to 10 and won the expected goals (xG) battle by 2.03 to 0.45, while also enjoying a 62.4% possession share and completing 496 passes to United’s 282.