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When Jess Park left Manchester City for Manchester United, some considered it a sideways step – but she is already showing why it was a smart decision.

The 23-year-old had regular game time at City during her eight-year spell there and had broken into the England squad, impressing on the international stage.

But with fellow England midfielder Grace Clinton moving the other way, Park saw a challenge she wanted to take and it has so far paid off.

It was a surprise to see Park not in the starting XI as United plotted to spoil Everton’s first WSL match at the new Hill Dickinson Stadium, but it was all part of a strategy designed to unsettle the hosts.

Since her move in the summer, Park has become a key figure for manager Marc Skinner, playing alongside Ella Toone in an attacking midfield set-up that is flourishing.

“I genuinely believe her and Tooney become alive and are electric together. We just have to be able to adapt and evolve it,” said Skinner.

It has come as a welcome surprise that United have been able to get the best out of Toone and Park – something that wasn’t always as easy with Clinton and Toone.

It is also a partnership that could benefit England, and former Lionesses striker Ellen White said Park looks more “free” in the role she has at United, compared to how she was used at City.

“This has been a really great move for Jess Park. There was a lot of questions but she has let her football do the talking,” White said on the Women’s Football Weekly podcast.

“She has settled in really well. She is great on the ball technically and also has good fitness levels so she will defend.”

Skinner said the two were training together on Saturday, taking up shooting positions specific to a number 10 – and it paid off with Park’s double at Everton.

“In training, we’ve been working on Jess opening up her body and where she might receive the ball and different ways to finish,” Skinner said.

“They both [scored lots in training]. In the number 10 role you usually have one touch to set the ball, then a second to hit it.

“It was working on that speed and both were excellent.”

Skinner knew Everton would be well prepared for Park given manager Brian Sorensen worked with her during a 2022-23 loan spell with the Toffees.

The United boss hoped to catch his Everton dugout rival off guard and was able to use Park effectively off the bench.

“We rotated to play a winger system rather than the number 10 system. They had to adapt,” said Skinner.

Sorensen acknowledged that Park’s absence from United’s starting XI threw Everton.

The impact of the tactical shift, on United’s part, was eventually effective. Despite going a goal down, they reacted, and when Park came on she provided the devastating touches.

Sorensen had to rely on youthful and largely inexperienced WSL players to react – calling them “future Jess Parks”.

He recalled Park’s rapid development during her time at Everton.

“I played her central in a 3-4-3 system. For City, she was a wide player. I saw that potential in bringing her inside,” said Sorensen.

“That’s also how Sarina [Wiegman] started to use her in the national team – in that number 10 role – and I think that’s where she’s best.

“I think in United’s system, she can go inside. She starts wide and then she drifts inside. It’s hard for your defence to deal with that.

“That makes it a bit unpredictable. Jess is a quality player and she’s been that for the last couple of seasons.”

Wiegman will announce her England squad in the coming days for the upcoming friendlies against Brazil and Australia.

Asked if he thinks Park is a different player now to the one Wiegman last worked with in July, Skinner said: “I really do.

“If Sarina feels she needs tight areas unlocking, then there is no better than Jess or Tooney right now to do that.

He is a striker in form, netting well over a goal a game, scoring in almost every match this season. He is leading his club’s title charge and taking his country to the brink of the World Cup.

Usually this would be a remarkable introduction for any one player.

But this season it applies to not one, not two, but three of Europe’s leading strikers.

Kylian Mbappe has hit 17 goals in 13 matches for Real Madrid and France this season. But the 26-year-old is only Europe’s third-most prolific striker.

Harry Kane, 32, has bagged 19 goals in 12 matches for Bayern Munich and England.

And Erling Haaland, 25, leads the way on 21 goals in 12 games for Manchester City and Norway.

As you do.

It is early in the season but it already seems to be a three-horse race for the European Golden Shoe – awarded on a points system to the top striker in European club football.

The three are currently far above any of their European competitors.

Paris St-Germain’s Ousmane Dembele, who won the Ballon d’Or recently, has only played five times this season because of injury.

Alexander Isak has not found full fitness yet after missing the start of the season at Newcastle as he tried to force through his £125m move to Liverpool.

And Robert Lewandowski, now 37, has more substitute appearances than starts for Barcelona this season.

Haaland has been the most prolific of the trio this season with his 21 goals in 12 games coming at an average of one every 47 minutes.

Kane’s total of 19 in 12 equates to one every 52 minutes, and Mbappe is averaging one every 67 minutes with his 17 goals in 13 games.

Mbappe has four assists, with the other two notching three each.

In a comparison of their general play, the stats show – as you might expect – Kane and Mbappe are involved a lot more than Haaland.

Mbappe (772) has touched the ball more than Kane (445) and Haaland (257) combined.

A much higher percentage of Haaland’s touches come in the penalty area too.

Haaland has only created six chances for team-mates, compared to Mbappe’s 38 and Kane’s 27.

It is a similar story when comparing the number of passes completed by each forward – 97 by Haaland, 456 by Mbappe and 231 by Kane.

The Norwegian has won 25 aerial duels – with 12 for Kane and three for Mbappe.

In club football, Kane has been the most prolific this season – as he has just one goal for England, with Haaland netting nine for Norway and Mbappe scoring three times for France.

All three nations are top of their World Cup qualifying groups with maximum points.

England’s top goalscorer Kane has notched 18 goals for Bayern in 10 games this season, including 11 in the Bundesliga and four in the Champions League – plus that one goal for his country.

He has netted 47% of Bayern’s 38 goals this season.

Only Augsburg and amateurs Andorra have kept him out in his 19 matches for club and country so far.

He has hat-tricks against Leipzig and Hoffenheim.

If Kane kept this Bundesliga scoring rate up all season, he would end on 62 goals. Nobody has ever scored that many in any of Europe’s major leagues.

The Bundesliga record is the 41 that Lewandowski netted for Bayern in 2020-21.

Tottenham’s all-time top scorer has won Germany’s version of the Golden Boot in both seasons for Bayern, with 36 goals and then 26 goals, to add to his three Premier League awards.

A repeat this time around would make him only the second person to win three in a row in the Bundesliga after Lewandowski (who won five in a row).

That would also put him joint third on the list of award winners, along with Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Ulf Kirsten.

Mbappe has struck 14 times in 10 matches for Real this season – and three in three for France.

That is 54% of Real’s 28 goals in all competitions. Only against Mallorca has he failed to strike – and he has one hat-trick in the Champions League against Kairat Almaty.

If Mbappe kept up his scoring rate of nine goals in eight games in La Liga, he would end up with 42 goals.

Only Lionel Messi (twice) and Cristiano Ronaldo have ever scored more in a Spanish top-flight season.

He is chasing an eighth consecutive league Golden Boot after winning six in a row in Ligue 1 for PSG (for whom he is their all-time top scorer) and then last year’s La Liga one at Real.

In the Champions League, he has netted five goals in two games.

That goal rate is clearly unsustainable over a whole season but it gives him a chance of hunting down Ronaldo’s record of 17 in a Champions League season (2013-14).

If Real were to get to the final (and not need the knockout rounds play-off) Mbappe would have another 13 matches in the competition.

Even by Haaland’s very high standards, this season has been something else.

Norway’s all-time leading goalscorer has scored 12 goals in nine games for City. Tottenham are the only team to keep him out.

But for Norway, it is a sensational nine in three matches (including five against Moldova and three against Israel) to take them to the brink of a first World Cup since 1998, before he was born.

He has scored 12 times during the whole World Cup qualifying campaign so far, twice as many as any other European player.

He is the joint top scorer in qualifying worldwide – along with Qatar’s Almoez Ali.

Haaland has set the bar so high that his total of nine goals in the first seven Premier League games of the season is only his third best at this stage in his four seasons in England.

He had netted 11 by now in 2022 and 10 last season.

His current league scoring rate over the course of the season would bring him 49 goals. The Premier League record is the 36 he scored in 2022-23.

Dixie Dean’s record of 60 top-flight goals for Everton in 1927–28 will probably never be broken.

If we only count his City stats this season, he is on course to score about 70 club goals in all competitions if they reach the Champions League final (without him even playing in the Carabao Cup or FA Cup).

With three players in such good form, opinion on the best is bound to be divided.

Former Scotland, Chelsea and Everton winger Pat Nevin, a BBC Sport pundit, said: “It is no denigration of Erling Haaland, who is one of the great players in world football.

“In England, they admire Harry and all the rest of it, but he also should be considered one of the greats in world football. Maybe he’s not seen as that in England, but he is.

“When you are watching a game when Haaland is at his best, your eye is always drawn to him. It seems like there are 21 footballers out there and Haaland.

“If you go and watch Harry Kane at Bayern, one of the top teams in the world, it is Kane and 10 others. He is a force of nature. And not just in Bundesliga games. I am talking Champions League games. He is a colossus.”

Spanish football journalist Guillem Balague, meanwhile, thinks Mbappe and Barcelona winger Lamine Yamal are the best two players of any position in the world right now.

While Manchester City team mate Nico Gonzalez believes Haaland is “the best striker in the world”.

Brighton defender Maelys Mpome is “up and about” after being knocked out during their Women’s Super League defeat at Arsenal on Sunday.

There was a 10-minute break in play after Mpome was struck in the face by a ball during the second half at Emirates Stadium.

Several medics attended to the French defender, who had to be taken from the field on a stretcher, with her head in a brace and receiving oxygen. It was later confirmed she had also suffered a concussion.

But Brighton manager Dario Vidosic said Mpome was with her team-mates in the changing room after the game.

“I just asked for a quick update,” Vidosic told BBC Sport. “They said she is up and about, and she is having a shower which is positive news.

Vidosic said that concern from Mpome’s team-mates may have had an impact on their performance as Brighton chased an equaliser.

Brighton trailed after Marisa Olislager’s own goal in the first half but improved and forced several saves from Arsenal keeper Daphne van Domselaar.

But they failed to create many openings after Mpome’s injury, with the home side coming closer to scoring in the final moments.

“It’s never nice to see your team-mate get hurt,” Vidosic said. “Maybe that did play a part, fatigue as well.

“We tried to push everyone as much as we could in a safe way, but maybe it took the rhythm out of the game with the 10-minute pause.”

The New York Jets remain the only winless team in the NFL after the Denver Broncos escaped with a 13-11 win against Aaron Glenn’s side in London.

Denver last week beat Super Bowl champions Philadelphia, who went into that game as one of only two teams still unbeaten.

Yet on Sunday at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, a team tipped as potential Super Bowl contenders laboured to victory in front of 61,155 fans in the second of this year’s three London games.

Nade Adkins claimed the game’s only touchdown at the end of the first quarter, helping the Broncos to a 10-6 lead at half-time.

Defences then dominated in a nail-biting second half, which saw the Jets edge in front with their third field goal and a safety.

The Broncos’ second field goal put them back in front with five minutes remaining, before their defence stepped up in the closing stages.

The Jets were struggling to get within range to attempt a potential game-winning field goal with just over a minute remaining and went for broke on 4th & 8.

But they failed to earn first down as quarterback Justin Fields was sacked for the ninth time – he had as many sacks as pass completions (nine) – allowing the Broncos to improve their record to 4-2 while the Jets are now 0-6.