Brighton 4-2 Arsenal: Champions League finalists suffer another heavy WSL defeat

The Gunners, who will take on Barcelona in the Women's Champions League final later this month, were hoping to bounce back from their 5-2 loss to Aston Villa last week.

Yet Renee Slegers' team, whose slim title hopes were dashed following Chelsea's win over Manchester United in the wake of that defeat to Villa, fell short against the Seagulls at Broadfield Stadium.

Arsenal had their chances, having 25 shots, getting 12 on target and accumulating 3.06 expected goals (xG), yet Brighton were clinical.

After Caitlin Foord had cancelled out Fran Kirby's opener, Jelena Cankovic scored either side of half-time to put Brighton 3-1 up.

Kiko Seike added a fourth to the Seagulls' tally in the 54th minute, with Mariona Caldentey grabbing a consolation for Arsenal in stoppage time, though Sophie Baggaley did pull off a string of smart saves to avoid a grandstand finale, including tipping a Chloe Kelly effort onto the crossbar.

Brighton have now won back-to-back WSL matches and sit fifth in the table, and though they are unable to catch fourth-place Manchester City – who are 12 points clear – this resounding victory marks another outstanding moment in a brilliant season for Dario Vidosic's team.

They round out their league campaign against Villa on Saturday, while Arsenal will look to get back to winning ways when they take on United, with the race for second place going down to the wire.

FT: No words for that performance.[4-2] #BHAARS // #BHAFC pic.twitter.com/v8mwlelnMe

— Brighton & Hove Albion Women (@BHAFCWomen) May 5, 2025

This marks Brighton's first WSL win over Arsenal, who had won all of the previous 13 meetings between these teams in the competition, which was the best 100%-win rate one side had over another.

Having followed up last week's win over Everton, Brighton have won back-to-back WSL matches for only the second time since the start of the 2022-23 campaign, having also done so early on this season.