Australia's England-based Matildas have burst back to winning ways in the Women's Super League -- but European champions Arsenal will be without Kyra Cooney-Cross for the rest of the season.
A week after Australia's defeat in the final of the Women's Asian Cup in Sydney, Arsenal confirmed 24-year-old midfield ace Cooney-Cross won't be returning to England so she can spend time back home with her mother Jess, who's been diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer.
"She stayed in Australia to spend time with her family and we're respecting that," coach Renee Slegers said. "She won't be with us for the rest of the season."
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Cooney-Cross will be a big miss as Arsenal seek to defend their Women's Champions League crown, but both fellow Asian Cup finalists Caitlin Foord, with a brilliant 61st minute goal, and Steph Catley, impressed on their return in Saturday's 5-2 win over Tottenham Hotspur that moved the Gunners to second in the table.
Catley started while Foord came on for the second half after Alessia Russo had netted a 27-minute, first-half hat trick. Foord controlled a cross before swivelling to fire home Arsenal's fourth and admitted afterwards it had helped get the Matildas' 1-0 defeat to Japan out of her system.
"I was super pleased to get in the game, get that last game out of the way now to move on, and to put the ball in the back of the net again," said the 31-year-old.
"The girls have been great since I've been away at the Asian Cup. They have scored a lot of goals, got a lot of wins and it's been exciting to watch them from the other side of the world."
Another Matildas finalist Mary Fowler also had the chance to shake off some of the frustration of the Asian Cup near-miss with a brief cameo off the bench in the dying minutes of Manchester City's 3-0 derby win at Manchester United.
A quickfire first-half double from Vivianne Miedema set City on course to win the Women's Super League title for the first time in 10 years. They're first in the table on 49 points, with Arsenal, who have two games in hand, second and United third, both on 38. Champions Chelsea are now fourth on 37 points.
But there was no escape from the memory of Japan's win for another Matilda, Clare Wheeler, who'd come on as a late sub in last week's final.
Before the derby with Liverpool, the Everton midfielder was part of an honour guard for the Japanese players from both clubs who featured in the tournament in Australia. Then just to put the tin hat on her day after she'd again come off the bench late to try to help the Toffees grab a late equaliser, Everton still succumbed 3-2 to a Liverpool side down to 10 players.
