Khadija Shaw scored a hat-trick against Tottenham for the third successive season as Manchester City thumped them 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium to go four points clear at the top of the Women’s Super League.

A nightmare start for the away side saw Shaw punish a Clare Hunt mistake to put City ahead with just 20 seconds on the clock, then double the advantage with a 15th-minute header.

Lauren Hemp, who had teed up the second, subsequently rattled the woodwork three times with one shot after the break before producing further assists as she set up finishes from Jill Roord in the 66th minute and Shaw a minute later.

Shaw was tormentor in chief again having also scored three times when City beat Tottenham 3-1 at the Joie Stadium in March 2023 and 7-0 there last November. Her latest treble was a record sixth in the WSL.

This victory made it six league wins on the bounce in City’s unbeaten start to the season, Gareth Taylor’s team increasing their lead over second-placed Chelsea, who have two games in hand, ahead of the champions playing Liverpool away on Sunday.

Tottenham boss Robert Vilahamn had said his side needed to go into the contest with the mindset of having to be “at least almost perfect” – but they were far from it in the opening few seconds as Hunt lost possession inside her own half to Shaw, who advanced into the box to slot City in front.

And after Spurs goalkeeper Becky Spencer parried a Yui Hasegawa effort, things soon got worse for the visitors with Shaw outjumping their defence to head home from Hemp’s cross.

That prompted a huddle of the Tottenham players led by skipper Bethany England, before the ball was in their net once more, via a Roord shot, this time with the flag going up for offside, and Shaw headed wide.

Tottenham started to make some impression in attack as Matilda Vinberg stretched but was unable to connect with an England cross, and hit a shot over.

Aoba Fujino then passed up a good chance to make it 3-0 in the 42nd minute as she headed another Hemp delivery over the bar.

Further Tottenham sloppiness with the ball near their own area led to Hemp bringing a diving save out of Spencer early in the second half, before England tried a hooked effort at the other end but could not get it on target.

Hemp will then have wondered how she was not on the scoresheet in the 57th minute as she saw her shot bounce from one post to the bar and on to the other post but not go in.

The third did arrive nine minutes later as Hemp went past a couple of players and laid the ball to Roord, who rifled in.

And within moments Shaw completed her personal treble for the night, and Hemp a hat-trick of assists, when the latter’s cross was tapped in by the former at the back post.

Both were subsequently taken off by Taylor, with Shaw’s replacement Lily Murphy going close in the closing stages as she fired into the side-netting.