Manchester City came from behind twice to win an absorbing, six-goal thriller 4-2 against Arsenal, maintaining their 100% winning start to the Women’s Super League season and heaping further pressure on Arsenal and their head coach, Renée Slegers. The defending champions stretched their advantage over Arsenal to 10 points after just five rounds of matches, leaving the title hopes of last season’s runners-up hanging by a thread.
Arsenal have won only once in the league this term, and not since the opening weekend. Slegers said on Friday that she retained the full support of Arsenal’s executives.
The match was the first to be played at the Etihad Stadium since the Premier League published its guilty verdict against Manchester City. The atmosphere outside the stadium in the buildup to kick-off was subdued, but it quickly changed once the game started and was wholly different in the second half as the hosts began to take control and their supporters enjoyed themselves. City had frequently insisted their women’s team were treating matters as “business as usual”, including before Thursday’s draw with Real Madrid. There were very few references to the ongoing saga: some Arsenal fans chanted “same old City, always cheating” during the first half, and one City supporter sitting just in front of the media seats defiantly shouted about the “115 charges”, but nobody else joined in.
On the pitch, Khadija “Bunny” Shaw thought she had opened the scoring in the first half, but her header from a Carlotta Wamser cross was correctly ruled out for a foul on the goalkeeper. Arsenal’s opener, two minutes before half-time, came in circumstances City will have felt aggrieved about: replays showed Lisa Baum appeared to be offside when Lotte Wubben-Moy headed goalwards, but Baum was quickest to the rebound after Ayaka Yamashita’s save and poked home, to the delight of the 2,000 travelling Arsenal fans.
Arsenal could not hold on until the break, however. Lauren Hemp’s deflected strike found its way into the far corner after good buildup play involving Shaw, levelling the score. Arsenal’s worries deepened at half-time when Mariona Caldentey went down injured during City’s move and was substituted, looking visibly upset and in pain.
Arsenal came out the stronger after half-time despite the absence of one of the best players in Europe. They nearly conceded when Shaw was played through one-on-one, but a slightly heavy touch let the WSL Golden Boot winner down and Anneke Borbe did well to close her down. Moments later, Arsenal took the lead again after another surprising sight: a mistake from Yui Hasegawa, who lost the ball inside her own area, allowing Alessia Russo to pounce and curl a finish into the far corner.
It was Russo’s first league goal of the campaign and her second in two games, after she scored in Wednesday’s 2-2 draw against Paris FC — welcome news for Sarina Wiegman before England’s World Cup qualifying playoff against Greece. Arsenal appeared in control for a sizeable spell after Russo’s goal, before a triple substitution from Andrée Jeglertz, including the introduction of Kerstin Casparij, changed the game.
The 26-year-old Casparij, playing as an inverted full-back, latched on to a loose ball and curled in a delightful strike with her very first touch to equalise. Soon afterwards Hemp tucked a tidy finish through Borbe’s legs to give the hosts the lead, and Arsenal’s body language changed as City moved on top. City added a clinical fourth when Shaw latched on to Aoba Fujino’s excellent through-ball and finished superbly with a low strike, more than making up for the chance she had squandered earlier.