WSL winner and loser: Hampton the smiling, Yashin Trophy-winning sh*thouse and pointless Hammers
Chelsea maintained their 100% start to the campaign with a typically gritty 1-0 win over Leicester City, featuring a glorious sh*t-eating grin from the ever-smiling Yashin Trophy winner Hannah Hampton.
Manchester City spanked Tottenham 5-1 to take their customary place in the seemingly eternal top four behind Manchester United and Arsenal, who saw out a very forgettable 0-0 draw in a weekend in which Liverpool’s game against Aston Villa was postponed after the sad passing of two-time title-winning Reds boss Matt Beard, for whom tributes were paid across the WSL clashes.
Big up to Arsenal and Sarina Wiegman for winning club and coach of the year at the Ballon d’Or ceremony, but this is all about the weekend’s action, when it was business as usual for Hampton ahead of her latest award…
Winner: Hannah Hampton
“You can’t go through life without that smile on your face. So if it makes you happy you’ve got to go follow that smile.”
We think about Hannah Hampton’s advice to young people after she was told at the age of 12 that she would never play football again roughly 427 times per week. There’s some delightful – perhaps unintended – poetry in ‘following a smile’ that we love, but it also takes on far greater meaning having come from a goalkeeper who’s undergone multiple eye surgeries to fix a birth defect which, unbelievably, remains a problem.
“I don’t think anyone will understand how no depth perception and being a keeper goes together, but somehow it does,” she added. Incredible.
And she’s true to her word – smiling at any given opportunity: when throwing Spain goalkeeper Cata Coll’s water bottle containing her penalty notes into the crowd in the Euros final; when captain Millie Bright is giving very serious instructions in a half-time huddle for Chelsea; when a Leicester City player has the temerity to attempt a 30-yard shot against her.
The effort drifted harmlessly over the bar and Hampton couldn’t help but break into a sh*thouse grin as she went to retrieve a ball for a goal kick. It was glorious.
She won the Yashin Trophy, awarded to the best goalkeeper in the world, on Monday night and the stats – or rather the stat – suggests she’s at least ruling the WSL roost. Her PSxG minus goals allowed score (essentially a goalkeeper’s ability to save shots, explained better here) of +1.6 is the best of anyone in the top flight.
And after a weekend in which the Chelsea men’s title hopes were dealt a predictable blow by their calamitous goalkeeper, Hampton is a huge reason why the women’s team are hot favourites to claim their seventh WSL title in succession, and no doubt she’ll be smiling throughout.
Loser: West Ham
This was by no means a battering like they were subjected to the week before against Arsenal, but we’re not quite sure West Ham will look back on a game in which they had an even share of possession and the same number of shots (15) as any real positive when it ends 4-1.
The result means the Hammers are bottom and pointless after three games having scored just twice and conceded ten, and while they won’t be the first nor the last team to get hammered by Arsenal this season, Brighton had scored just once in their first two games before Dr West Ham arrived.
The defending in the first half was ropey at best, with the Seagulls cutting through them in open play with consummate ease, often after West Ham had ceded them possession, while they were all making that all-too common mistake of focusing on opposition players from set pieces rather than actively looking to win headers. Manager Rehanne Skinner wasn’t pleased.
“At the end of the day, if we’re not going to fight for all of our one-versus-one battles and stick to the gameplan, then it’s always going to cause us a problem.”
Just the small matter of Chelsea next.
