On Sunday, it’s 1st vs 10th as champions Manchester City face Brighton & Hove Albion at the Joie Stadium as Barclays Women’s Super League action returns following the international break.

Last time out, City prevailed over Arsenal by a 4-2 score line at the Etihad Stadium, thanks to a brace from Lauren Hemp and a goal apiece from Kerstin Casparij and Bunny Shaw, which leaves the champions a staggering nine points ahead of the Gunners at this early stage of the season.

The Blues go into Sunday’s clash in East Manchester with the only 100% record in the division after an impressive five wins out of five. The only other side in the WSL that can boast an unbeaten start to the season are Sonia Bompastor’s Chelsea.

Fully focused

City boss Andreé Jeglertz was keen to emphasise that, despite the excellent start and the exciting period his side are about to embark on, the squad’s mentality must be focusing on the next game ahead.

He said: “We talked about it today, it’s early in the season. We have done a couple of analyses of where we are and we have some great things. We’re top of the league, won five games, and played two exciting games in the Champions League. There are a lot of things there that we are pleased with, but also a couple of things that we need to develop and move forward with.

Coming into this period now is very exciting, a lot of games, tough games, so the only thing that we need to do is focus on where we are. The next game is the most important game of the year and having that mentality will keep us focusing on the most important things.

Challenging Brighton

The two sides last met back in May in the FA Cup final, where City ran out 4-0 winners over Brighton at Wembley Stadium, with goals from Bunny Shaw, Alex Greenwood, Aoba Fujino and Vivianne Miedema ensuring the Cityzens secured an historic double following on from their WSL crowning the previous week.

Brighton are no strangers to being a difficult opponent for City over the years, and back in April was no different as the Seagulls beat the would-be champions 3-2 at the Broadfield Stadium after a brace from Madison Haley and a Kiko Seike strike cancelled out goals from Kerolin and Bunny Shaw.

Jeglertz made no mistake in recognising the danger Brighton will pose his side when the two sides meet for the first time this season.

He said: “We had some challenging games against Brighton last year. Both the one here (The Joie) when we were one goal down in the first half I think it was and then also away, we lost and then a lot of challenges in the FA Cup final also in the first half. We know that they are going to challenge us, but we are ready.

Definitely going to be challenging for us. We know they have some excellent players, they play a little bit different than they did last year, but they’re also tactically very skilful both how they’ve been playing, but also the players so they can play in different ways. I know it’s going to be a tough game.“