Chelsea Women will be looking to secure a sixth consecutive victory in all competitions when they face Reading Women on Sunday.
The hosts enter the contest in top spot, while the Royals are currently in eighth place after failing to win any of their last six Women's Super League matches.
Match preview
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With Arsenal's derby game against Tottenham Hotspur postponed last weekend, Chelsea had the chance to leapfrog the Gunners when they faced Leicester City last time out.
As it proved, it was an opportunity that the defending WSL champions took in spectacular fashion as they hammered the Foxes 9-0 to move one point clear of their title rivals with just five matches left to play.
Within 11 minutes of kickoff, Chelsea had surged into a four-goal lead against Leicester, thanks to strikes from Guro Reiten, Sam Kerr, Beth England and Aniek Nouwen.
England and Reiten both found the net for a second time before the break, and Emma Hayes's side continued to pile the misery upon the sorry Foxes in the second half, with Kerr becoming the third Chelsea player to grab a brace in the contest, while Lauren James and Jessie Fleming also found the net to wrap up a memorable afternoon for the Blues.
As a result of the wide scoreline, Chelsea enter the weekend with the best goalscoring record in the WSL, while they also hold the best defensive record in the top flight, and on Sunday they will hope to retain their position at the top of the table by extending their current unbeaten league run to nine matches.
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After 12 matches, Reading had picked up 22 points, but since a 2-1 win over Everton on February 6, the Royals have picked up just two points.
As a result of their recent poor form, Sunday's visitors head to Kingsmeadow in the midst of a seven-game winless run in all competitions, although they were denied a win against Aston Villa last weekend.
With just over 20 minutes remaining, Reading hit the front courtesy of a Justine Vanhaevermaet spot kick, but the Royals were denied all three points when Ramona Petzelberger equalised in the 76th minute.
Despite struggling for points in recent weeks, Reading have already accumulated the same number of points that they achieved last season, and they enter the weekend's round of fixtures just a point adrift of a place in the top half of the WSL table.
Kelly Chambers's side also have the chance to complete a remarkable league double over the English champions after a Deanne Rose strike gave the Royals a 1-0 win over Chelsea in the reverse fixture.
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Team News
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Pernille Harder and Fran Kirby still remain doubts for the hosts, but Chelsea have seen squad numbers increase in recent weeks with Magdalena Eriksson, Maren Mjelde, and James all returning after recovering from their respective injuries.
Following such a destructive performance against Leicester, Hayes could name an unchanged lineup for Sunday's contest.
Kerr will continue to lead the line and the Australia international enters the fixture in impressive form after scoring eight goals in her last six appearances.
As for Reading, Natasha Dowie is set to retain her place in the side after returning to the squad against Aston Villa.
Emma Harries, meanwhile, is likely to have to settle for a place on the bench for the second week in a row, despite appearing for just under 30 minutes last weekend.
Rose will be aiming to add to the four league goals that she has scored this season when she features in the Reading forward line, with the Canada international aiming to score against Chelsea for the second time this term.
Chelsea Women possible starting lineup:
Musovic; Bright, Nouwen, Carter; Charles, Cuthbert, Ingle, Ji, Reiten; Kerr, England
Reading Women possible starting lineup:
Moloney; Bryson, Cooper, Evans, Woodham; Harding, Vanhaevermaet, Troeslgaard, Eikeland; Dowie, Rose
We say: Chelsea Women 2-0 Reading Women
Chelsea may have slipped up against the Royals back in December, but with the Blues determined to end the weekend in top spot, we think that they will have enough quality to beat Reading on Sunday.
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Chelsea Women win with a probability of 87.94%. A draw had a probability of 8.6% and a win for Reading Women had a probability of 3.43%.
The most likely scoreline for a Chelsea Women win was 3-0 with a probability of 13.05%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (12.25%) and 4-0 (10.43%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (4.1%), while for a Reading Women win it was 0-1 (1.28%). The actual scoreline of 5-0 was predicted with a 6.7% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Chelsea Women would win this match.
