Arsenal beat Leicester to secure Champions League place

Arsenal secured the Women’s Super League’s third and final Champions League place with a comfortable home win over Leicester.

Arsenal are six points behind leaders City with nine points to play for – and face Gareth Taylor’s side in their penultimate match on 5 May.

Mead opened the scoring with a crisp finish, collecting a pass from Caitlin Foord and clipping past Leicester goalkeeper Lize Kop.

England team-mate Russo started the game in a number 10 role behind Stina Blackstenius but added the second after moving up front, smashing in low and hard after good play from Steph Catley.

And Mead made it three just four minutes later, chipping in from three yards after Kop had denied Russo with an excellent save.

Manuela Zinsberger had to make two fine saves to keep out Leicester, with Sam Tierney going closest for the visitors, but Arsenal dominated the second half for an eighth win in nine games.

Arsenal were out of the Champions League in the first qualifying stage this season as they fell to a shock defeat by Paris FC but the 2007 winners will hope to fare much better next year.

On a day that brought a straightforward victory, the biggest cheer was saved for the second-half return of Frida Maanum, playing for the first time since her collapse during the Continental Cup final win over Chelsea on 31 March.

Tests found “no obvious cardiac causes” for the midfielder, who has been fitted with a device to monitor her heart, and she played 24 minutes.

WSL record goalscorer Vivianne Miedema also made a late return for Arsenal from her latest knee injury.

Leicester have now lost all 11 of their away WSL games in London – failing to score in 10 of them – but interim manager Jennifer Foster will be pleased with the way her side stuck in the game for 75 minutes.

Despite just four wins all season the Foxes are safe but have plenty of work to do to compete with the best in the top flight.