As the Women’s Super League title race intensifies, champions Chelsea play under government sanctions at home while league leaders Arsenal work on getting the game’s most ruthless attacker more involved.

Here’s a guide to what to look out for this weekend.

‘Resilient’ Chelsea focus on trophy hunt

Chelsea are at home for the first time since club owner Roman Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK government.

Tickets for the visit of Aston Villa were taken off sale on Thursday when Russian businessman’s British assets, including the London club, were frozen.

Season-ticket holders, and supporters who had already bought tickets for the match, will be allowed to attend as usual but there is no doubt the numbers at Kingsmeadow will be affected.

Chelsea are a box-office attraction in England’s top flight and drew capacity crowds of more than 3,300 for their previous two home games against Arsenal and Manchester City.

Manager Emma Hayes said she has “got an adaptable and resilient group” at her disposal after they beat West Ham 4-1 on Thursday night, just hours after the news of the sanctions broke.

“Yes, there is uncertainty but I think pre-occupying our minds too much with that is only going to add to it. So I don’t,” she said.

“We are also in the hunt for a trophy, so as long as that remains within our control I have no doubt whatsoever that the entire dressing room will be firmly fixed on that.”

Can City mount unlikely title challenge?

Being fifth in the table and 14 points adrift of leaders Arsenal with eight games left does not indicate that Manchester City are a title contender of any sort.

But the injury-hit City that struggled earlier in the season has been replaced with a near full-strength side playing with swagger and confidence.

A domineering 3-1 League Cup final win against Chelsea a week ago highlights just how dangerous they are.

If they beat Tottenham on Sunday – a match that will be broadcast live on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and on the BBC Sport website from 12:30 GMT – they can move to within two points of third if other results also go their way.

After the weekend, they will also still have two games in hand on leaders Arsenal. Second-placed Chelsea, who are nine points ahead of City, are the only top-five side who have played the same amount of games as them.

“We’re going into an important run of fixtures now,” City manager Gareth Taylor said. “One thing to throw caution to is being overconfident.

“We learnt about ourselves on the weekend which is good for us to use.”

Miedema again at number 10?

After becoming the first WSL player to reach 100 goal contributions, are we now witnessing the rebirth of Arsenal’s star striker Vivianne Miedema as a playmaker?

The Netherlands international bagged her 70th English top-flight goal in the Gunners’ 4-2 win against Birmingham last week.

Seeing the 25-year-old hit the back of the net is no way surprising. What was, however, is that she was among the scorers having again been deployed in the number 10 role.

Having provided 30 league assists since her WSL arrival in 2017, she certainly has a track record for pulling the strings in attack and unlocking defences.

But is ‘Miedema the goal machine’ now ‘Miedema the playmaker’, having fallen into a deeper attacking role in the past three games?

“Viv enjoys feeling involved in the team and feeling connected,” Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall said. “I think that is such a big part of football, how do you make players feel like they are not isolated?

“The way we play at the moment makes her feel involved and connected I think she is enjoying that.”

Is there any hope for Birmingham?

Starting the year by shocking league leaders Arsenal 2-0 to move off the bottom of the WSL table was, and remains, the high point of Birmingham City’s season.

It was only Darren Carter’s third match as interim Blues boss and he proudly declared that “if they give that every single week, I’m very confident we can start pushing up the table”.

Since then, however, their league campaign has unravelled further, losing all five league games since and conceding a WSL-high 16 goals in the process.

They are now eight points adrift of safety with six games remaining. Their tally of four points from 16 games is the third-lowest tally for a WSL side at this stage of the season.

They host West Ham – a side they have failed to beat in four meetings since 2019 – on Sunday.

‘We want to bring pride back to Everton’

Everton’s season started with aspirational talk of challenging for a Champions League spot.

Two sacked managers and a brief flirtation with a relegation scrap later and their remaining eight league games are about giving fans “something to cheer”.

“As a squad, we feel that we aren’t in a position that we wanted to be at this stage of the year,” said caretaker manager Chris Roberts after overseeing back-to-back wins.

“Regardless of where we can finish this season, every single point means a lot to us because we are determined to get as high in the league table as possible.

“We want to bring as much pride back to our performances as possible and give our incredible group of fans something to cheer about in each game.”

Sourced From BBC