The saying goes that winners celebrate and losers explain, but this weekend’s headline fixture might have been one where the winners needed to explain exactly how they did it.
Manchester City came away from a trip to Bromley with a 2-1 win over one of the WSL’s in-form teams, London City Lionesses, despite being second-best for much of the game.
According to Opta, London City’s 3.1 expected goals against City was the highest by any side on record in a WSL home defeat since 2021-22. The reigning WSL champions had to soak up waves of pressure for large parts of the game, scoring twice without ever controlling proceedings.
City produced arguably their worst performance of the Andrée Jeglertz era and still won. That can be taken as yet another warning sign for a team that hardly needs one, or as a baked-in feature of a resilient City side that surprised nobody by leaving with all three points.
Here are the five talking points from the game.
The Shaw-Hemp connection
Fresh from a third-place finish in the Ballon d’Or, Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw showed why she’s the world’s deadliest finisher and along with teammate Lauren Hemp, City have the most dangerous attacking pair in the league. Their goals (and Hemp’s assist) meant they became the first pair of teammates to reach 10 goal involvements each through matchweek 8 of the WSL season since Chelsea’s Sam Kerr and Fran Kirby in 2021-22.
Hemp’s goal and assist also made this the 18th WSL game in which she has both scored and assisted. Only Vivianne Miedema, with 22, has done so more often, while Hemp is level with Beth Mead on 18.
The Sky Blues are always in a game thanks to the peerless Hemp and Shaw, and their quality this season has taken City’s attack to another level. City found themselves pinned in their own half for large periods of this game and relied on Shaw’s link-up play to get up the pitch and relieve pressure.
The Jamaican’s failed clearance from a set-piece against Manchester United last weekend gifted the Red Devils an equaliser last weekend, but her aerial ability is a major part of City’s set-piece defence. Against London City, she was imperious defending dead-ball situations.
Hemp was also forced to defend at the weekend, as London City’s adventurous right-hand side of Kadidiatou Diani and Jana Fernández forced her to spend much of the match without the ball. It wasn’t Hemp’s best 90-minute performance, but she was the most decisive attacker on the pitch when it counted.
The return of Rebecca Knaak
City’s season has so far been defined by the attack digging the team out of holes created by shaky defensive performances. This time, the defenders bailed out an attack that never really got going. Captain Alex Greenwood held her own at left-back and the ever-present Jade Rose was on hand with vital interventions. Meanwhile, City’s own match report singled out Rebecca Knaak as its player of the match.
This was the German centre-back’s second start of the season and her second in three days after returning against Paris Saint-Germain in the UWCL. She played 61 minutes of that game before being substituted, with PSG equalising late in her absence.
The LCL game was anything but dominant, so Knaak was called upon to do plenty of defending. She finished with six tackles, five blocks, five clearances, one interception and three ball recoveries. Her composure was a welcome addition to a defence that has been riddled with mistakes this season. She also created City’s best chance of the first half with her threat from set-pieces.
Game management
One of City’s strengths during last season’s title run was the ability to right their wrongs. A League Cup semi-final defeat to Chelsea was followed by a 5-1 league win 11 days later. They scored at least five goals after both WSL games in which they failed to score. They also came from 2-0 down to beat Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final and weathered Brighton’s dominant opening 35 minutes before winning the final 4-0.
This season, City’s late-game management has started to become a problem. The champions were 1-0 up in each of their last two games and conceded equalisers in the 88th and 89th minutes.
Against LCL, Hemp restored City’s one-goal lead just two minutes after London City’s equaliser, after which the hosts managed only four more shots, three of which were from outside the box. City couldn’t find a way to dominate possession, but they dug in and made sure their lead stayed intact, ensuring that conceding late equalisers didn’t become a worrying pattern.
The Champions League turnaround
City have already dealt with two short European turnarounds this season. After facing Bayern Munich on a Tuesday, Jeglertz made six changes for the Saturday WSL game against Charlton. After their Thursday draw with Real Madrid, he made three changes for Arsenal on the Sunday.
This time, Jeglertz made only one change from the side that drew with Paris Saint-Germain on Thursday, and City’s struggles against London City can partly be attributed to that. Yui Hasegawa and Laura Blindkilde Brown have had to play the last four games on the bounce and looked leggy on Sunday. They looked unable to maintain their pressing intensity and London City played through it repeatedly.
City were able to call on midfielder Sam Coffey as a substitute, but the Australian was returning from a month out after getting injured in the win over Arsenal in early October. Her 30-minute cameo couldn’t help City take control of proceedings.
Finding a way to win, again
Jeglertz is looking to own City’s identity as gritty, unspectacular winner. After the game, he said: “That quality to win in different ways is good to have, but the players also have to adapt to that and feel it’s okay to not have the ball all the time; to take pride in defending and only having three or four chances, but finishing off those chances.
“It’s also our third game in seven or eight days which is tough for the players, but they still did their job and worked hard.”
City have the quality to dominate and blow teams away but as a squad playing twice a week, it is far more important that they find a way to win when not playing at their best. City’s excellent record this season is down to the individual quality of their players, but also from a collective belief that they can adapt to difficult situations and still find a way.
The win at London City will not be the prettiest of City’s season, but it may prove one of the most important at season’s end.
