Both teams knew this was a win or bust moment for their already fading title hopes and, in that spirit, they served up a breathless seven-goal thriller. It was the visitors, Arsenal, who came out on top to surely confine the remainder of Manchester City’s Women’s Super League campaign to merely a battle for European qualification.
City’s fourth defeat in their past six WSL games was another engrossing but mistake filled match that will be hugely damaging for their hopes of domestic success. On the overall share of the chances, Arsenal probably deserved to edge an end-to-end contest.
Chelsea extended their unbeaten streak to 21 games with a narrow 1-0 win away at Aston Villa. The reigning WSL champions were far from their best at Villa Park but super-sub Mayra Ramírez ignited a much-needed spark in the 82nd minute. Receiving the ball just inside Aston Villa’s half, the forward made a powerful run down the right before cutting in and sending a low cross towards the six-yard box. Sarah Mayling attempted to make the clearance but instead tapped it into her own net. Despite the loss, it was a positive performance from Aston Villa who showed clear signs of improvement under new manager Natalia Arroyo after just one week in charge. Kirsty Hanson came closest for the hosts when her long-range effort hit the crossbar.
Manchester United returned to second in the table with a 1-0 win over Tottenham. Elisabeth Terland’s sixth-minute strike proved to be decisive as Marc Skinner’s side moved seven points behind Chelsea. After receiving the ball from Ella Toone on the right, full-back Jayde Riviere found Terland in the box with a pinpoint cross. The striker then wrapped her foot around it to fire her shot into the bottom-left corner. That result takes United to five successive WSL victories.
Everton bounced back from last weekend’s defeat to West Ham with a crucial 4-1 win against fellow strugglers Leicester City. Shannon O’Brien cancelled out Kelly Gago’s early opener with a 16th-minute strike, but the hosts regained their lead just after half-time through Katja Snoeijs before Honoka Hayashi and another strike from Gago sealed the victory at Walton Hall Park. The result saw Everton leapfrog both West Ham and Aston Villa up to eighth in the table.
Across Merseyside, Liverpool got back to winning ways with a 1-0 victory over West Ham. Ceri Holland was the instigator of the decisive strike, weaving around two opposition players before firing a dangerous pass through to Leanne Kiernan, who flicked the ball past Kinga Szemik with the outside of her right boot. 'I think it was just important to get three points and also another clean sheet, which is really positive,' said the Liverpool manager, Matt Beard.
Finally, relegation candidates Crystal Palace took a crucial point from Brighton thanks to a late equaliser from My Cato at the Broadfield Stadium. The hosts took the lead through a Lily Woodham own goal in the 18th minute before Brighton's Maisie Symonds saw red for a late challenge on Aimee Everett. The result left Palace 12th in the table, three points adrift of safety. Emillia Hawkins
The errors were littered throughout almost every big moment in the match and began inside the first minute when Laia Aleixandri was dispossessed while trying to control a short pass from goalkeeper Khiara Keating and Mariona Caldentey put Arsenal in front. The away side were 2-0 up just seven minutes later when Keating attempted to punch clear Kyra Cooney-Cross’s free-kick but was beaten to the ball in the air by Lotte Wubben-Moy, who headed in.
Gareth Taylor defended 20-year-old Keating, who also made errors in their 4-2 defeat against Manchester United in January, saying: “We have to be really careful with these young players that we don’t just jump on the bandwagon straight away and lay all of the blame with them.
“If you want to blame someone, then blame me. Blame me. I pick the team. I back my players all of the time. But for us to all of a sudden just look at the game, see the four goals and point to Khiara straight away, I think that is a little bit tough, because we know that there’s a very good goalkeeper in there, but who at the moment is suffering. Our job is to help her and support her as best we possibly can. If that support looks like me pushing back on questions from yourself, then I will do.”
Taylor’s team were the stronger for the remainder of the first half, though, and halved the deficit when Mary Fowler nodded in Aoba Fujino’s right-wing cross, which perhaps the Arsenal goalkeeper, Daphne van Domselaar, will feel she could have done better with. The mistakes from both teams continued after half-time, with Caldentey giving away possession on the edge of her own penalty area to allow the former Arsenal forward Vivianne Miedema to score her fifth goal in her past four appearances in all competitions.
It was also the second time this season that Miedema had scored against her old club, since her summer switch from north London to the east side of Manchester. A minute later, Arsenal went 3-2 up as they sliced through the home side’s defence to see Frida Maanum score in front of their travelling fans.
The next mistake to lead to a goal appeared to come from the officials, as a penalty was awarded for a foul on Fujino by Steph Catley that appeared to have occurred just outside the box, rather than inside it. Fowler did not care and dutifully dispatched the equaliser from the spot.
More momentary lapses followed, with Keating running 30 yards out of her goal to try to intercept a long pass but timing it badly, allowing Stina Blackstenius to go around her and appear certain to score – but the Sweden striker had run too wide and was too hesitant.
The game’s seventh and eventual winning goal was more down to two acts of quality rather than any further blunders, with Caldentey’s super crossfield pass finding Beth Mead in space and the England winger rolled in a perfectly placed low cross for Blackstenius to tuck in the winner and leave Manchester City in fourth spot, 12 points behind the leaders, Chelsea, who won 1-0 at Aston Villa.
Arsenal are still 10 points off the top of the table but have lost only twice this season in the WSL compared to City’s four defeats and have conceded just nine league goals, half of City’s total.
Renée Slegers, the Arsenal head coach, praised her team’s response to their first defeat of her time in charge, at Chelsea a week ago, saying: “It was important. I was hurt of course after the loss against Chelsea. We analysed it. I asked: ‘Who are we? What is the Arsenal way? What is our identity? How will we win games against top opposition?’ The girls were all with us.
“It wasn’t the end of the world from a performance perspective against Chelsea but the loss of the three points meant a lot. I think the group is so strong from game to game and also within the games that we can show resilience and come back – which is what we did today.”
