Manchester City 6-1 Aston Villa: Shaw hits four to move leaders six points clear
Manchester City will be top of the Women's Super League for the winter break, with Khadija Shaw leading the charge against Aston Villa.
Khadija Shaw scored four goals to help Manchester City to a stunning 6-1 victory over Aston Villa and extend their lead at the top of the Women's Super League to six points.
She stole the show, with the first of her goals the 100th she has scored in all competitions for City, with Aoba Fujino and Vivianne Miedema also getting onto the scoresheet.
There was very little action in the early stages of the game, but Shaw broke the deadlock with City's first chance of the game in the 37th minute, getting in front of her marker to get on the end of Miedema's cutback.
The Jamaican then doubled their lead on the stroke of half-time, turning smartly to open up for the shot to beat Sabrina D'Angelo, while she also smacked a curler off the post in the second half.
Fujino added City's third shortly after the hour, with Miedema again providing the assist before Lucy Parker pulled one back for Villa when she nodded past Ayaka Yamashita.
However, their celebrations were cut short as Miedema got on the scoresheet herself with a close-range strike to restore the three-goal cushion.
Shaw brought up her hat-trick in the 84th minute with a simple finish, but she was not done there as, in the fourth minute of stoppage time, she thumped in Grace Clinton's delivery to earn the Citizens a 10th straight win.
At the other end of the table, Liverpool remain rooted to the bottom without a win, though they did come from behind to salvage a 2-2 draw with fellow strugglers West Ham.
Data Debrief: No stopping Shaw
At the halfway point of the season, City are in total control, with Andree Jeglertz leading his side to an almost perfect campaign so far.
And that charge is led by Shaw, who has now scored 103 goals for City in all competitions in 120 appearances, with 74 coming in the WSL (12 this term).
The 28-year-old led by example, having six shots, five of which were on target, while she also contributed 2.13 expected goals (xG) to City's overall total of 3.92.
Villa, by contrast, mustered 1.18 xG, and have still never beaten City away from home in six attempts (D1 L5).
