Manchester United v Everton: Women’s Super League – live

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Here come the players. And here’s a reminder of the teams.

Manchester United (4-2-3-1) Earps; Batlle, Le Tissier, Turner, Blundell; Zelem, Ladd; L Garcia, Toone, Galton; Russo.
Substitutes: Baggaley, Mannion, Thorisdottir, Tounkara, Boe Risa, Cascarino, Parris, Thomas, Williams.

Everton (possible 4-2-3-1) Brosnan; Finnigan, Sevecke, Bjorn, George; K Holmgaard, Galli; Snoeijs, Sorensen, Park; Beever-Jones.
Substitutes: Henderson, Wheeler, Christiansen, Bennison, Hope, Maier, Stenevik.

Referee Emily Heaslip.

Rare is the transfer window in which the biggest story is a move that didn’t happen.

Team news

United make one change from their last league game, the 1-0 win at Reading a fortnight ago. Leah Galton replaces Nikita Parris as the left-sided attacker.

Everton beat West Ham 3-0 on the same day, though they subsequently lost to Birmingham in the FA Cup. Brian Sorensen makes four changes from that West Ham game: Courtney Brosnan, Nathalie Bjorn, the exciting Aggie Beever-Jones and Aurora Galli are in for Emily Ramsey (who is unavailable against her parent club), Lucy Hope, Hanna Bennison and Clare Wheeler.

Preamble

When Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013, you’d have got long odds on United’s next league title being won by the women’s team – especially as it didn’t exist at the time. Since they were founded in 2018, United have established themselves as the best of the rest. They won the Championship in 2018-19 and finished fourth in each of their three WSL seasons. Now they want more.

This season, for the first time, it feels like the Big Three has become the Big Four. United aspire to something greater this year - Champions League qualification, certainly, which comes with finishing in the top three, and maybe even the WSL title.

They are top of the table at the halfway point, a nose ahead of Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal in what could be a title race for the ages, and their commitment to the here and now was shown by the decision to reject two world-record bids from Arsenal for Alessia Russo by Arsenal. United may well lose Russo for nothing when her contract expires in the summer, but it’s a worthwhile gamble given what they could achieve in the next few months.

The second half of United’s season starts with a home game against Everton this afternoon. Everton’s young team are having a good season and sit in fifth place, though their record against the Big Four is pretty dreadful, with only one point in the four seasons since United were promoted to the WSL.

United will expect to win. Given how tight the title race is likely to be, they need to.

Kick off 12pm