Manchester City’s 1-1 tie with Aston Villa on Saturday showed that the home side succumbed to the same issues they had the first time around in their 4-3 season-opener defeat.
The expectation to repeat the goal fest from September hung palpably in the air when the Women’s Super League joint-top scorers went head-to-head. City's Khadija Shaw and Villa's Rachel Daly are on par with a nine-goal tally and both found the net at Villa Park, but neither managed to get on the score sheet at the weekend, to edge out the other.
Instead, Deyna Castellanos gave City the lead by slotting home a perfectly weighted through ball by Shaw for her first WSL goal. Minutes later Villa's Kirsty Hanson replied by hitting the ball over a diving Ellie Roebuck and Alanna Kennedy bringing it back to a stalemate just before the break, after which, remained a goalless second half.
The Citizens continued to force play out from the back on Saturday, much to the crowd's dismay but were caught in possession time and time again. There was little urgency or communication on the pitch, with even less opportunity to play the ball forward. Villa are renowned for their high and aggressive press but City assumed they were immune, dawdling with the ball matched with a complete lack of desire.
Something the Citizens identified early on but are still yet to address, as cited in their post-match of the season opener, Taylor said: “I have high faith and high belief in this team. But we need to earn it, I think that's a really important part — we have to go out and take games by the scruff of the neck and do the dirty work without the ball, not be too nice. Because nothing is given to you, especially in this league.”
But as they sit fourth in the WSL table; surely it is their ruthlessness that has earned their 13-game unbeaten streak in all competitions, or have they done just enough to get by?
It is the first time these two sides have come away with a draw since Villa joined top-flight football in September 2020. Out of six clashes, the Sky Blues have come away winners four times, scoring 21 goals in the process. Whereas the Villans have taken three points from the Manchester heavyweight side just once. They’ve scored a total of five past City’s defence, four of which featured in this 2022/23 season's opening game, in a seven-goal thriller.
It was a 4-3 defeat over a newly formed City XI after the mass exodus of players leaving in the summer. Nevertheless, Gareth Taylor's side pulled it back from being two goals down by the half-hour mark, despite spells of chaos at the back.
Alisha Lehmann’s counterattack punished the visitors' turnover of possession, swiftly followed by Daly’s volley doubling their lead within 10 minutes.
Taylor’s back four looked scrambled and disjointed at Villa Park, Demi Stokes, Alex Greenwood, Steph Houghton and Esme Morgan made up the defensive line with current regular full-back starters in Kerstin Casparij and Leila Ouahabi on the bench.
He opted to debut Laia Alexandri, a Spanish-international defender, higher up into the right side of the midfield three, but knowing the quality of the players on his roster, the starting line-up felt off. Perhaps it is due to a large percentage of his team sheet being newcomers, but that doesn't excuse a lack of quality, does it?
Creativity up top continued to bail out the overall lack of fight in the play-to-player battles. Laura Coombs and Shaw pulled the score-line back equal, followed by another of Coombs' tremendous strikes into the top right corner for a 3-2 lead two minutes later.
But, the insistence to play out of the back caused havoc for City. Houghton misplaced a pass which again was immediately punished by Kenza Dali, giving Daly the chance to find the winning goal once the midfielder's run drew three City defenders out of position
Alexandri rushed back to fill in the gap but allowed Villa’s Laura Blindkilde to run past her to be a free attacking threat, should Daly miss. Huge gaps between Houghton and Greenwood allowed the ball to slice through their defence with Stokes unhurried still at the edge of the box.
Similar scenes played out at the weekend, Taylor said: “Not one of our best performances I'll be honest, I think we looked a bit flat from the start and then obviously the concentration span was poor today, for the goal we conceded. We just couldn’t quite get the symmetry right today, or get the combination play right.”
And despite edging the win last time out, Villa manager Carla Ward left the Academy Stadium the happier manager of the two, she said: “I would say [they’re] two very different games, thankfully. [Saturday was] not like the first day of the season, if it was I might be greyer than I am now but we will be going home happy tonight.
“I think the opening game this season was the excitement of the season starting, everyone out of the blocks and City had made an awful lot of changes so I think it was a very very different game I think today we knew it would be tight, it was like a game of chess at times [with] two good footballing sides wanted to keep the ball.”
Manchester City currently have 23 points from 11 games - two points behind Arsenal with a game in hand, and five points behind second-place Chelsea and leaders Manchester United with their next chance to impact their league position comes on February 4 against Leicester City.
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