Chelsea and Arsenal both enjoyed 5-0 wins and Manchester City slumped to a 4-2 derby defeat to Manchester United as the Women’s Super League saw some major changes at the top of the table after the competition resumed following the Christmas break.

Leaders Chelsea hammered West Ham United and top the standings on 31 points from 11 games, seven ahead of Arsenal, who beat Crystal Palace to move up to second, and Manchester United, who moved past City and into third place.

City slid from second to fourth, nine points behind Chelsea, after Ella Toone’s hat-trick for their bitter cross-town rivals dealt a serious blow to their title hopes.

Reigning champions Chelsea took an early lead through Catarina Macario, with Erin Cuthbert and Aggie Beever-Jones also scoring in the first half to send them in 3-0 up at the break.

Sandy Baltimore netted seven minutes into the second half and a late Amber Tysiak own goal completed the rout as Chelsea remained unbeaten, with 10 wins from their 11 league games this season.

Across London, Arsenal’s Leah Williamson gave her side an early breakthrough before a four-goal barrage after the break saw the Gunners beat Palace.

Sunday’s late kickoff turned out to be a thriller as the Red Devils, who had never won away to City in the WSL, raced out to a 3-0 lead after 36 minutes, only to concede twice before the break.

However, Toone completed her hat-trick in the first minute of the second half and United were able to hold on to take the three points from their most impressive outing of the season.

Soccer star Erling Haaland has signed a 10-year contract with Manchester City.

Liverpool got the second half of the season underway on Friday with a 2-1 home win over Brighton & Hove Albion, while Merseyside rivals Everton were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Aston Villa on Saturday.

Inter Milan’s assistant coach Massimiliano Farris praised his team’s maturity in Sunday’s 3-1 home victory over Empoli and said they were focusing on one match at a time.

With manager Simone Inzaghi serving a touchline ban for accumulating yellow cards, Farris led Inter to victory with goals from Lautaro Martinez, Denzel Dumfries and Marcus Thuram.

“The team had a very mature approach; it doesn’t always mean coming out aggressively. We immediately found an Empoli side that focused on closing spaces at the back,” he told reporters.

“Often, games are unlocked in the second half due to the work done in the first. And when Lautaro (Martinez) does what Lautaro does, there are no issues.”

Farris added that they were not focusing on the table, with Inter three points behind Napoli at the Serie A summit but with a game in hand.

“We focus on the games to be played: before the match, we were six points behind, now it’s three,” he said. “Right now, we don’t have time to look at the calendar, we only think about what needs to be done.”

Goalscorer Martinez admitted that Napoli would be a tough challenge to overcome in the title race.

“It’s going to be fascinating. We are three behind, we have a game in hand, but as always we need to focus on our own path, because Inter have to do better every single year,” he told DAZN.

Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina recovered from a sub-par first 20 minutes to charge past Russian Veronika Kudermetova 6-4 6-1 on Monday and reach the last eight of the Australian Open for the third time.

The 30-year-old was 4-1 down in the first set but upped her aggression to rattle off the next five games and put one foot in the quarter-finals at a Grand Slam for the 12th time.

Kudermetova had a medical treatment at the end of the first set but could not stop the rot as Svitolina broke for 3-1 in the second stanza with a volley at the net.

The Ukrainian was by now charged with confidence and soon set up a tie against six-seeded Kazakh Elena Rybakina or American Madison Keys by sending another thunderous backhand winner down the Rod Laver Arena court.

“I was just trying to fight, it’s the only thing I can do when things are not going my way,” she said of her poor start to the match.
“I’m really happy I could fight my way back into the match and win in straight sets.”

There was no handshake at the net as Svitolina continued the boycott of the post-match tradition which Ukrainian players have maintained when facing Russians and Belarusians since the 2022 invasion of their country.

Svitolina, who is 7-0 against Russian players since the invasion and wrote the message “the Spirit of Ukraine” on the camera before she left the court, last reached the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park in 2019.

“I feel it was a lifetime ago,” she said “To come back again and again, after the pregnancy, after the surgery, starting from zero, it’s not easy, I can tell you.

“For me, it’s a really amazing feeling to go deep in this kind of tournament, in the Grand Slams.”

Svitolina said she would be on Margaret Court Arena later on Monday to cheer on her husband Gael Monfils in his fourth-round tie against American Ben Shelton.

“Playing the way he’s playing now is special,” she said of the 38-year-old Frenchman.

“We are witnessing something really nice.”