Here’s Tom Garry’s report.
If you want more WSL, then Emilia is watching the champions in action.
Full-time: Manchester City 3-4 Arsenal
A thriller where City will have so many regrets. Arsenal prevail thanks to Blackstenius, despite a Miedema goal. Arsenal showed off their greater experience in escaping and calming down the chaos.
90+5 min: Late Gunners sub: Mead off, Ilested on. City make a terrible mess of their corner.
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90+3 min: Shaw drops deep to attempt a wave of attacks but Arsenal have been rather solid and impressive. They have a corner to defend after Walti smashes the ball behind.
90+2 min: Hasegawa has to clear the danger, and City need far more than that.
90 min: City up in numbers but not creating enough of a threat. Five minutes will be added on.
88 min: Gunners sub: off goes Blackstenius for Rosa Kafaji. Looks like Nighswonger will get that quiet night.
86 min: Lot of noise coming from the Arsenal fans. Their team has a grip on a game that at times they lost control. They’ve made use of City’s rather, er, eccentric defending.
84 min: City up their efforts. There’s talk Leah Williamson might have handled a ball aimed for Shaw but nothing doing there.
83 min: The long ball is launched for Bunny Shaw but so also is the offside flag waved, Yes, getting a bit one-dimensional.
81 min: City have been a little shapeless in this half. Nothing like the same coherence of their play in the first half.
79 min: City’s Casparij is booked for a cynical pull-back on Russo.
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Goal! Manchester City 3-4 Arsenal (Blackstenius, 78)
Beth Mead does Beth Mead things, escaping into space on the right, and Blackstenius slots. City will bemoan the defending.
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76 min: City keep getting it launched towards Bunny Shaw. This is a different timbre and tone of game now. And with so much to play for.
74 min: Zach Neeley is among many to complain about that penalty:
“Bback to back penalty wrongly given to one team then penalty wrongly denied the other, especially in a big game like this, is a massive screw up. Isn’t it worth some waiting to not swing league standings?”
73 min: Nearly a repeat of that opening seconds goal. Aleixandri loses it and Caldenty steals in, only to make a mess of passing this time.
Charles Antaki: “Apparently, according to the previous manager, it was a choice between keeping Miedema or signing Caldenty. Plenty of fans were unpersuaded, and it’s true that she hasn’t looked quite like the World Cup winner of 2023. But she’s now playing with less stellar footballers than the Spanish team. Anyway. Under Slegers the optics look better. Scoring in the first minute agaist City helps, of course.”
71 min: Free-kick won as Mead clatters Kerolin. Now, who will take? Taken short and zipped to the back post. Arsenal’s goalie collects at the second time of asking.
69 min: Gunners change: Lia Walti for Kyra Cooney-Cross.
67 min: Fowler, how has been excellent, releases Shaw, and then Ouahabi’s ball evades everyone. The ball runs down the other end, and away goes Blackstenius as Keating runs out, way out of her goal. The danger is averted. Breathless stuff.
65 min: It takes some time for the ball to go dead. Keating wallops ball out. It’s Miedema and Park who depart, then Nicoli and Bunny Shaw come on. Nicoli is making her home debut.
63 min: Calm breaking out, perhaps because of those immiment changes.
61 min: Subs are immiment. Bunny Shaw for City among them. Looks like Arsenal might reshuffle their defence.
58 min: To put it politely, this hasn’t been much fun for the defences. Great, aching gaps is where the goals have come from. But, who’s complaining? Who needs an intriguing tactical battle?
56 min: What a ridiculous game. Blackstenius fires wide, and Arsenal say she was fouled. It looked to be after the event. No penalty given. No VAR, either.
Goal! Manchester City 3-3 Arsenal (Fowler, 55 pen)
Wallop, and it’s levels you devils. Fowler kept her cool at least.
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Penalty to Manchester City!
It’s madness, utter madness. Did Catey foul Fujino inside the box?
53 min: Well, what happened there? To both teams. Perhaps the only thing preventing another goal was Beth Mead going down injured…
Manchester City 2-3 Arsenal (Maanum, 51)
The defending just as poor for the City goal and Caldentey presents a surging Frida Maanum with a chance to score.
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Goal! Manchester City 2-2 Arsenal (Miedema, 50)
An odd goal, City progress the ball and nobody appears to come across to stop the inevitable: Miedema is presented with the ball and scores….non-celebration celebration.
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48 min: Blackstenius builds up another head of steam, only for Knaak to shepherd her out.
47 min: Like that first half, Arsenal take up the cudgels and the ball skids into the City box. A chance for Blackstenius? No, she’s offside.
46 min: Back underway, will we see another fast start? No subs made at half-time.
Half-time: Manchester City 1-2 Arsenal
Fujino’s low, grubber of a shot is stopped and that concludes a breathless half of Arsenal scoring two fine goals and then being chased down by City. Next goal wins? Probably.
45+1 min: Two minutes are added on. Miedema is chasing the ball all over the field. Might she drop deeper in the second half with the addition of Bunny Shaw? That might be necesaary.
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45 min: The wildness of those opening moments has given way to calm.
43 min: Arsenal attempt to press City into the type of mistake coughed up for that first goal. Next, the pattern is repeated at the other end.
42 min: City keep the pressure on, Arsenal retain their shape. Still so much to play for.
40 min: That free kick is taken rather weakly, with Arsenal showing some aerial prowess, though they did get caught out for that Fowler goal.
38 min: Knaak, City’s New Year’s Day signing, makes a fine intervention. Miedema makes a run, and is tackled by Maanum, a free kick.
36 min: Keating panics as a free-kick is boomed down her throat in the City box. She gets a hand to it, and there is relief when the whistle sounds.
34 min: Miedema is OK, and shows just why when going on one of her runs, though the shot could have been better. She is apologetic to bench and teammates.
33 min: Miedema is limping, she took a knock, and ankle rol as he tried to hold the ball up.
32 min: Still, Arsenal are in the lead, and with Blackstenius in space, they have options. This time, though, the Swede takes the wrong one.
30 min: City retain that dominance of possession. Arsenal’s attempts to press aren’t doing much.
28 min: Hasegawa’s snap shot forces Van Domselaar into a save. Shots at both ends.
26 min: Arsenal, at last, gain some light, some time on the ball. And are high pressing the City defence. Russo’s shot is well saved by Keating. Both teams are attacking and with decent quality. A credit to the WSL, this.
24 min: All credit to City; they have been chasing and chasing the deficit they conceded in the opening 10 minutes. 64% of the possession say the stats. Miedema chases the ball from deep and shoots. Van Domselaar is equal to the task.
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23 min: City have a corner, taken short, Fujino and Fowler interchange and then off the bar, to be pumped behind for another.
21 min: Game on, and Arsenal have shown off a soft centre. It was a brave header from Mary Fowler, heading it when it might have hurt.
Goal! Manchester City 1-2 Arsenal (Fowler, 20)
City with all the ball. A good reaction from them. And they score a fine goal. Fujino goes to the byline and Fowler, at the back post, nods down.
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18 min: Russo spins away down the left but is unable to keep the ball in and City can go back on the attack.
17 min: Ouahabi smashes in a shot after a far better attack from City, walloped wide, more in hope than expectation but at least Arsenal are being forced to turn back on themselves.
16 min: A very loud contingent of Arsenal fans here. Their team is dominant, though currently seems happy to sit back on their lead.
14 min: Jess Park whips in the ball and Miedema’s header is wide. Better from City, at least the passes are finding blue shirts.
13 min: Some City pressure at last but Ouahabi isn’t quite on the same wavelength as her colleagues.
10 min: A long way back for City, and Arsenal have been defending well with the goalscorer, Wubben-Moy, at the heart of that.
9 min: Yet again, City’s defence is found wanting. Wubben-Moy was unmarked from Cooney-Cross’s ball in. A few seconds later, Blackstenius is sent away and is only just stopped in her tracks.
Goal! Manchester City 0-2 Arsenal (Wubben-Moy, 8)
Roord is penalised for a foul on Wubben-Moy, and the same player is the target for a free-kick, and heads home.
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5 min: City have collected the most points from losing positions this season in the WSL so there’s that.
3 min: To their credit, City go back at their opponents, Miedema in the mix but tackled. They’ve fallen into the trap of conceding far too many early goals.
2 min: City got caught out playing from the back and Arsenal took their chance well. There 43 seconds on the clock. Amazing.
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Goal! Manchester City 0-1 Arsenal (Caldentey, 1)
1 min: The players take the knee as they kick off, and it’s a full atmosphere at City’s purpose-built stadium. There’s a charm to….oh, what! A mistake from Alessandri, Caldentey steps in, picks her spot and scores…
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Looks a decent-ish day in Manchester. Changeable weather always possible, of course, and it’s cold, too.
Arsenal manager Renee Siegers on the selection of Blackstenius: “She’s just a great player that contributes in her way to our team. She’s been doing very well lately and we think we need her today on the pitch so she deserves to start.”
Gareth Taylor also spoke to Sky: “[We have had] a couple of good wins for us, the response has been really good. Today the margins will be tight, two decent teams. We want to come out on the right side of it.”
Last week, Arsenal ran Chelsea close.
Goalkeeper Khiara Keating comes back into the starting XI, with Ayaka Yamashita dropping to the bench: that’s City’s one change. Former Arsenal striker Vivianne Miedema starts up front against her old club as top-scorer Khadija Shaw is on the bench.
Three changes for Arsenal: Katie McCabe is suspended after she was sent off against Chelsea, Kim Little and forward Caitlin Foord injured. Stina Blackstenius, Frida Maanum and Lotte Wubben-Moy replace them.
Jenna Nighswonger, recently arrived at Arsenal is on the bench. Deserves a quiet night…
The teams
Man City Women: Keating, Casparij, Aleixandri, Knaak, Ouahabi, Roord, Hasegawa, Park, Fujino, Miedema, Fowler. Subs: Yamashita, Layzell, Kerolin, Blindkilde, Shaw, Prior, Oyama, Murphy, Mayzee Davies.
Arsenal Women: van Domselaar, Fox, Williamson, Catley, Wubben-Moy, Cooney-Cross, Maanum, Blackstenius, Caldentey, Mead, Russo. Subs: Zinsberger, Williams, Codina, Ilestedt, Reid, Peacock, Walti, Kafaji, Nighswonger.
Some meat on the bones of that amazing Kelly switch.
What the managers say
Taylor: “We have good options and it’s kind of working out what that week looks like. We’re not looking too far ahead, we have an important game on Sunday.
“I saw some good things at Villa last week. They’re always a difficult opponent so to put four past them is very impressive, and not many teams do that.”
Slegers: “We’re preparing for this game now and it’s the only game that counts. Sunday’s the only game, but it’s going to be interesting to view that game and see how we prep for the second game [against City].
“The supporters mean a lot for us, it’s quite special what we have at Arsenal and how we’re together now as a club, as a staff, as players and not least the fans who mean a lot to us.”
Preamble
A meeting of the chasing pack, trailing in the wake of the new Chelsea’s brilliance and Manchester United above them. And in the week that Chloe Kelly has accused Manchester City of attempting to “assassinate her character”, and joined Arsenal on loan. Kelly can’t play, of course, but that will add a certain flavour to the match. It’s a battle for third place, and more beyond that.
Join me for a 12pm kick-off on the Etihad Campus.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chelsea Women | 12 | 31 | 34 |
| 2 | Man Utd Women | 12 | 18 | 27 |
| 3 | Man City Women | 12 | 13 | 25 |
| 4 | Arsenal Women | 12 | 19 | 24 |
| 5 | Brighton & Hove Albion Women | 12 | -3 | 17 |
| 6 | Tottenham Hotspur Women | 12 | -6 | 17 |
| 7 | Liverpool FC Women | 12 | -8 | 12 |
| 8 | West Ham Women | 12 | -10 | 11 |
| 9 | Aston Villa Women | 12 | -8 | 10 |
| 10 | Everton Women | 12 | -12 | 10 |
| 11 | Leicester Women | 12 | -10 | 9 |
| 12 | Crystal Palace Women | 12 | -24 | 5 |
