Manchester City stayed perfect in the Women’s Super League with a 3-2 comeback victory against Arsenal, piling pressure onto the beleaguered Gunners and their manager Renée Slegers.
Goals from Kerstin Casparij, Bunny Shaw and a brace from Lauren Hemp were enough to condemn Arsenal to their second league loss of the season and their fourth winless WSL game in a row, which could put their dreams of a WSL title beyond reach.
Arsenal were no pushovers here and their performance up until the hour mark was consistent with that of a title contender, but the Gunners were picked apart in the final half hour.
Their threatening early attacking play was rewarded minutes before half-time when Lisa Baum bundled in from close range, and Alessia Russo scored her first WSL goal of the season with a stunning strike to restore the Gunners’ lead in the 49th minute.
City roared back into the game after substitute Kasparij scored a minute after coming on, and Hemp put City in front for the first time with a clever finish through the legs of Anneke Borbe. Shaw put the game to bed with a cool one-on-one finish on 84 minutes, protecting her team’s perfect league record this season.
City started the game positively, pressing Arsenal in their own third. The closest they came to an early goal was when Beth Mead – facing her former club for the first time since her summer move – thudded her goalbound strike into the head of City teammate Shaw.
Arsenal began to see more of the ball after surviving that early period of pressure, with Georgia Stanway and Mariona Caldentey looking to dictate play from midfield. Caldentey should have done better when Lisa Baum’s cross from the right found her unmarked at the back post, but her header was straight at City goalkeeper Ayaka Yamashita.
That was Caldentey’s last major impact on the game before leaving the field with an injury, potentially pouring misery on an Arsenal team in desperate need of stars staying fit.
Arsenal found joy on the break throughout the first period, with Emily Fox flying forward and forcing Yamashita into a smart save low to her right. Shortly after, Yamashita was culpable for Arsenal’s opener a minute later.
After flapping at a corner, the Japanese goalkeeper pushed a Lotte Wubben-Moy header straight into the path of Baum, who bundled home from a few yards out. City appealed for offside, and replays showed they may have had a case.
Before the match, Slegers acknowledged City’s habit of fighting back from losing positions, but even she wouldn’t have expected the hosts to reply so quickly.
Shaw did brilliantly to hold up the ball with her back to goal and set it to Niamh Charles, who played in Hemp to beat Borbe with a fierce drive just before the break, albeit thanks to the help of a deflection off Fox.
Profligacy in front of goal has cost Arsenal so far this season, but this time it looked like City would be the ones made to rue a missed opportunity. A minute after Shaw blundered while through on goal, Russo curled a stunning strike into the top corner from after City failed to clear their lines.
Arsenal looked hungry and City stunned, but the introductions of Casparij, Laura Blindkilde Brown and Mary Fowler seemed to swing the momentum in City’s favour. Just a minute after coming on, Casparij had replied with her own curler into the far corner, after a Shaw pass intended for Hemp fell into her path at the edge of the box.
City completed their latest comeback nine minutes later when Blindkilde Brown spread the ball to the right, Hasegawa stood up a cross to the back post and Hemp slotted through the legs of Borbe. The goal took the wind out of Arsenal, who had worked hard to earn something from potentially their toughest game of the league season.
In the 84th minute, Shaw got her sixth goal in seven games when she ran onto a Fujino pass, turned Leah Williamson and finished.
It is the third time in recent weeks that City have come from behind to claim points, after beating Liverpool in the WSL and drawing with Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in the Women’s Champions League.
For Arsenal, a fourth league match in a row without victory leaves them 10th in the table with five points from five games,10 points behind leaders City, and with a visibly emotional manager clapping the away fans after full-time.
