Alessia Russo’s 22-minute first-half hat-trick for Arsenal in Saturday’s north London derby is a sign that she is “stepping up” at a crucial stage of the season, according to Renee Slegers.

Manager Slegers praised the England forward’s maturity after she inspired the Gunners to a 5-2 win over Tottenham in the Women’s Super League.

“In training, she is communicating more and instructing more, driving the team more by being more vocal. You can see that she’s stepping up,” Slegers told Sky Sports.

“She is also part of the leadership group at Arsenal now. She is always herself, wanting to bring her best version, and she is very humble.

“She’s definitely developing that and we love to see it.”

A local derby always poses an element of jeopardy, but Russo’s relentless performance began eliminating Tottenham’s threat inside five minutes.

She then struck twice more before the half-hour mark to all but settle the contest.

Player of the match Russo told Sky Sports: “I love to score goals as much as I can and to do it here at the Emirates in a north London derby is really nice.

“It’s a good three points moving on to the rest of the season.”

That victory, coupled with Manchester United’s crushing defeat by neighbours Manchester City earlier on Saturday, means that the Gunners are in pole position in the race to qualify for next season’s Champions League.

With three games to play, they sit in second place above rivals Chelsea and Manchester United, while also having two games in hand.

Captain Kim Little, who was celebrating her 400th appearance for the club, praised Russo for developing into one of the team’s leaders since her arrival in 2023.

“This year, she has stepped up in terms of leadership as well. That in itself has brought out even more in her own game,” Little said.

“She is always great and always going to score, but I love how she presents herself and takes that leadership responsibility.”

In a fortnight where Europe-chasing rivals United drew two blanks in three league games, Arsenal hit 10 across two games to overhaul their goal difference deficit.

Of those 10 goals, Russo hit four.

She now sits third on the Women’s Super League leading scorers’ chart with nine goals and four assists from 18 appearances – that’s a goal involvement every 1.38 games.

Loughborough Lightning extended their 100% start to the Netball Super League season with an 83-69 victory against bottom side Birmingham Panthers.

Samantha Wallace-Joseph scored 35 goals for Lightning, who have won their first five matches to establish a three-point lead at the top of the table.

“It can be hard [being unbeaten] because all the teams are coming for us,” the Trinidad and Tobago goal shooter told BBC Sport.

“It’s just about keeping our consistency going, gelling together and executing the game plan.”

Panthers have lost their first five league matches of the campaign, each by a margin of at least 10, but they put up their biggest tally of goals in a match this season in a performance that pleased head coach Sonia Mkoloma.

“It wasn’t just the biggest score – I thought we stayed in it for longer,” Mkoloma told BBC Sport.

“We were competitive across four quarters, which we haven’t been, so I’m proud of them. I asked them to be competitive in this game and they stayed in it.”

Archie McParland scored a dramatic late try as Prem leaders Northampton Saints came from behind to edge out Saracens at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

McParland and Tom Litchfield both went over early in the game as Saints raced into a 14-0 advantage, with Fin Smith converting both tries.

But Smith went off injured, with Sarries storming back to level through Tobias Elliott and Theo Dan – and Fergus Burke’s penalty put them in front for the first time.

However, Litchfield set up McParland to run in his second score with the clock ticking down, as Saints secured their sixth straight win and went six points clear at the summit.

Northampton started at a lively pace and seized the initiative immediately, with Henry Pollock – returning to the side after Six Nations duty – held up over the line following a weaving run by James Ramm.

But the visitors were soon ahead after a swift move that originated on halfway, with Ramm and Josh Kemeny involved before Rory Hutchinson released Litchfield, who bustled through to score under the posts.

Fly-half Smith, also back in the Saints line-up after England commitments, was influential in the early stages and charged through on the breakaway to set up McParland for a routine score before converting to make it 14-0.

Sarries struck back with their first significant attack of the game, working possession from left to right for Elliott to snap up a bouncing ball and hold off two defenders before diving across the line.

Northampton suffered another blow when Smith was forced off with a head injury on the half-hour mark, prompting a reshuffle, and they had to dig deep to survive a series of scrums close to their line.

With skipper Maro Itoje starting to exercise greater control after the turnaround, Saracens proved more adept at denying their opponents space and levelled when Dan broke from the back of a maul and bundled his way over.

Sarries looked the more likely winners for much of the second half, with Hugh Tizard close to giving them the advantage after a bout of ball-juggling on the Saints line.

Burke, taking over kicking duties after Owen Farrell’s departure, slotted a penalty to break the deadlock, and the Saracens defence held out when Saints replacement JJ van der Mesch burrowed into the corner, but was unable to ground the ball.

However, the league leaders kept going and gained their reward with just two minutes left when George Furbank combined with Litchfield and McParland sped in for the decisive score under the posts.

Northampton Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson told BBC Radio Northampton:

“We played beautifully in the first 20 minutes, we just didn’t convert enough of those chances. I thought we were excellent in the last 10 minutes in terms of trusting our game, going forward and continuing to pull the trigger to make the space.

“I wouldn’t say it was ugly, but certainly not as good as we can be. Fair play to Sarries, they put us under a lot of pressure, particularly in the set-piece.

“We’re a bit disappointed we couldn’t really get into our game very much, but I thought we defended stoically and worked incredibly hard, and we just about got through.

“I think Litchfield’s been playing some of the best rugby of his life. He looks very confident and he looks very powerful. He’s created something out of nothing there and the offload was fairly audacious as well.”

Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews will miss the remainder of the regular season after sustaining a grade 3 MCL tear and quad contusion in his left leg following a knee-on-knee collision with Anaheim Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas. What caught many off guard including Hockey Hall of Famer Chris Pronger after the play was that no Maple Leafs player confronted Gudas as Matthews lay in pain.

That lack of response became the focus of Pronger’s comments this week on the Nasty Knuckles podcast. Watching Gudas look around expecting retaliation that never came, Pronger said he found himself laughing at the absurdity of it all and wondering what it says about the Maple Leafs as a team.

“If there was a camera on me, they would have thought I was a sick man,” Pronger said. “Because I started laughing when I saw the hit, because I looked at all the players. And I’m looking at, I’m literally staring at Gudas right here as I’m looking at the camera. I’m staring right at it, I see it happen, and I’m looking, and he’s like looking around, he’s looking around, knowing, okay, somebody’s coming. And they all just, I’m like, what are we doing here, guys?”

None of Toronto’s other four skaters on the ice including forwards William Nylander and rookie Easton Cowan, and defensemen Morgan Rielly and Carlo, confronted Gudas while their captain was writhing in pain on the ice.

“And the worst part, not only did they not respond in that regard, they didn’t even go over and check on him,” Pronger continued. “Yeah, they’re all so far away. The trainer was there, and they were gone. They didn’t even check on him. I’m like, wow, this is interesting.”

The incident occurred at 15:47 of the second period during Toronto’s 6-4 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Scotiabank Arena on Mar. 12. Matthews crumpled to the ice when he tried to sidestep the hit in the slot from Gudas, who was assessed a major penalty for kneeing and a game misconduct.

Gudas charged Matthews in front of the crease and led with his knee leaving the Maple Leafs captain in visible agony on the ice. Matthews was helped off the ice by a trainer and teammate Brandon Carlo putting minimal weight on his left leg.

There is ‘something bigger’ going on with the Maple Leafs

Chris Pronger believes the incident revealed fundamental problems with the Maple Leafs that go far beyond one moment of hesitation.

“Well, that’s the huge $64 million question. What do they do?” Pronger asked. “Do they blow it up? Do they fire everybody again? Do they add on the fringes? Do they trade one or two guys? Ultimately, that’s up to ownership. That’s an ownership decision of what direction do you want to take this. Because clearly, it’s going in the wrong direction.”

The Hall of Famer emphasized that this wasn’t an isolated incident for Toronto.

“And that’s not the first time something like that has happened where nothing has happened,” Pronger said. “And it’s not like, you guys know Chief [Berube], it’s not like he’s not going in there going like, guys, you’ve got to protect one another. You’ve got to be together… There’s something bigger going on there that we don’t know about.”

Matthews underwent MCL knee repair surgery on Mar. 19 with the Maple Leafs announcing that he faces a recovery timeline of approximately 12 weeks. He is expected to be ready for training camp next season.