Manchester United remain level below ‘big three’

In the history of the WSL, no team has lost three games and won the league. After suffering a first defeat of the season to a Manchester City side that have already lost twice, the Manchester United manager, Marc Skinner, said he thinks “it will be a different story this season”, before adding: “But I might be proven wrong.” Having finished second lastterm, the expectation has been that United would remain competitive at the top of the table, yet against City they were a shadow of the side that caught teams off guard late in games so often. At Old Trafford the home side took the lead only for their dominant rivals to punish them twice in two minutes before Khadija Shaw added a third in the second half. Skinner conceded there is still distance between his outfit and the traditional top three as they slipped down to fourth, seven points off league leaders Chelsea. “There is a clear gap. We have to deal with that fact. When you deal with facts, you have a choice on how you can next attack that gap,” he said. SW