The England wingers Chloe Kelly and Lauren Hemp ran riot against Arsenal’s chaotic defence and scored a goal apiece as Manchester City leapfrogged their opponents into third. City now sit three points clear of Arsenal having played a game more, and are level on points with second-placed Manchester United and two behind the leaders, Chelsea, after an inconsistent start to the season.
“I’m very impressed,” said the Manchester City manager, Gareth Taylor. “We were on it from minute one. It’s a testament to the girls to take it to another level from the game the other day. We should’ve been four or five up at half-time.”
Arsenal had kept 16 clean sheets in 21 away games in the league before this trip, but any evidence of their previous defensive solidity on the road was sorely missing. Their manager, Jonas Eidevall, opted for a back three of Leah Williamson, Lotte Wubben-Moy and Rafaelle Souza for the second time, after the first outing of the formation in the midweek 1-0 extra-time defeat of City. This time, though, Noelle Maritz and Steph Catley came in as the wing-backs in place of Katie McCabe and Laura Wienroither.
The effect was catastrophic. Any cohesion among the five was ruptured and Maritz was caught drifting inwards leaving Williamson pulled wide to cope with her dynamic England teammate Hemp. “This game here, it’s my responsibility,” said Eidevall. “They pressed us with high intensity and we weren’t getting into our positions quick enough to deal with that.”
It took four minutes for City to do what they had failed to do in 120 minutes on Wednesday, as Kelly whipped the ball across the face of the goal and Hemp turned in at the back post with Maritz glued to the spot.
City should have been further ahead far sooner than they were, with Laia Aleixandri firing over from close range and the Arsenal goalkeeper, Manuela Zinsberger, twice saving well with her feet – first from Khadija Shaw and then from Filippa Angeldahl.
Eidevall had said being able to play two different systems at the back would “make it harder for opponents to prepare for us”, but City did not have to change much. Kelly and Hemp were relentless and with Souza and Williamson pulled wider and wider, Wubben-Moy was too often left to deal with Shaw, the WSL’s top scorer, alone.
That was the scenario for City’s second goal. Shaw put Wubben-Moy under pressure and the England centre-back tried a risky pass wide to Catley. It was weak, and Shaw pounced and drove forward before selflessly squaring to Kelly to hammer in from close range.
There was a double change for Arsenal at the break, with Wubben-Moy off for Lia Wälti to allow Williamson and Souza to resume their partnership in the middle of a more familiar back four, while McCabe came on in place of Caitlin Foord to provide more cover ahead of Maritz.
Arsenal instantly looked more assured at the back and, with Williamson more central and able to carry the ball forward and build possession from deep, things evened up a little as they began to threaten. Stina Blackstenius hit the ball off the base of a post five minutes after the restart and the visiting team clawed a goal back four minutes later, when Frida Maanum’s free-kick was headed into the far corner by an unchallenged Souza with Ellie Roebuck stood still.
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City would go close to restoring their two-goal lead through the influential midfielder Yui Hasegawa, who crashed the ball off the crossbar. “Yui has come in and taken the team’s level of performance to another level,” said Taylor, who also had praise for his attackers, adding: “The top-end players created a lot of havoc without the ball today.”
Arsenal’s improvement continued but it was too little too late, with the damage done in the first half, and their title aspirations have been heavily dented. “I take it game by game,” said Eidevall. “It never changes for me. We always go game by game, trying to do our very best.”
