Matt Beard’s family ‘blown away’ by support since his death – Gareth Taylor

Liverpool manager Gareth Taylor said Matt Beard’s family have been “blown away” by the support shown since his death last weekend.

Beard, who led Liverpool to back-to-back Women’s Super League titles in 2013 and 2014 during his first spell in charge, died last weekend at the age of 47.

Beard was honoured ahead of Liverpool’s 5-0 League Cup win over Sunderland in midweek. Speaking in a pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday’s match against Manchester United, Taylor said he had spoken to Beard’s family this week.

“They’ve just been blown away with the support that’s come from the football club and the people of Liverpool,” Taylor said.

“The outpouring has been incredible for Matt, not obviously just here from Liverpool Football Club and all of the people who are associated with him for so many years, but also the people in the women’s game and even further beyond that.”

Marc Skinner was among those to have paid tribute to Beard and the United manager said he was expecting an emotionally-charged afternoon on Sunday.

“It will be a difficult moment for all,” Skinner said. “I wasn’t at the game the other night but that was almost an interlude to this game.

“It’s Liverpool versus Manchester United so it’s a big game anyway but I think it’ll be highly charged with emotion but very respectful I think from both teams.”

The weekend’s action begins with Arsenal hosting Aston Villa on Saturday lunchtime, a chance for the Gunners to take revenge for a 5-2 defeat the last time these sides met in April.

“We know that going into this season we want to be consistently consistent and we want to find new ways and we need to bring that in every single game,” Gunners boss Renee Slegers said.

“We know we will have to bring that on Saturday. We respect Aston Villa. Of course we know we need to be at our best on Saturday.”

Champions Chelsea head to West Ham, who sit bottom of the table, yet to pick up a point from their opening three games.

“In terms of results they are probably not the place they want to be but when you look at the squad, I think they have a lot of quality, Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor said.

“I don’t want to name players, but when you look at their starting XI in the past games, they are quality enough to cause us trouble.

“We will find the right balance, making sure we go in with confidence and put in the performance we need to win.”

Sunday’s other fixtures see Manchester City host London City Lionesses, Tottenham travel to Leicester and Everton take on Brighton.