Match report: Manchester City 4-2 Arsenal

Manchester City came from behind twice to win an absorbing, six-goal thriller 4-2 and continue their 100% winning start to the Women’s Super League season while heaping further pressure on Arsenal and their head coach Renée Slegers.

The defending champions, helped by Kerstin Casparij scoring a screamer with her very first touch of the ball after coming on as a second-half substitute, 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.

Lotte Wubben-Moy gives the Arsenal reaction

I think anything I say right now, the fans don’t wanna hear, you know? They were loud and proud today, as they always are, and it gives us extra momentum in away games.

Today we fought for ourselves, for Renee and for the fans. But ultimately the result didn’t do that justice.

We’re together as a group. When you look at the bigger picture, we’ve had two losses against two top teams – Chelsea and Manchester City. It was a game of fine margins; they just took their chances.

This is an unprecedented position for Arsenal to be in. It’s up to us to get ourselves out of it and I have no doubt we will.

City’s first equaliser has been credited to Lauren Hemp, which gives her two goals and an assist in the game. She’s the player of the match.

[On the first goal] Yeah I’ll take it! I’ll get as many as I can. I think I nicked that assist [for the second goal] as well, sorry. I didn’t mean it whatsoever, but it landed perfectly for Kerstin [Casparij] and she scored an absolute banger.

It was definitely a shot [for the first goal]. Against Madrid I was in exactly the same position and I didn’t shoot, so today I thought I’d give it a go. Even it was a Fox own goal, I doubt she’d want it so I’ll take it.

We were really clinical and did well to come back not once but twice. It just shows the character of this group.

There’s widespread applause from the Arsenal fans for Renée Slegers, who is the first to walk over to the away fans after the game. Slegers applauds them back and briefly appears to hold her hands up in apology. There’s no animosity there, from the away fans. They’re supporting her, which feels significant. I’ve seen teams endure runs like this before where there are chants for a manager to go, but there’s been nothing like that today.

An emotional Renee Slegers applauds the away end, putting her hands up as if to say sorry before patting her heart. It’s hard to tell on TV but it looked like the Arsenal fans were very supportive.

Arsenal’s game management, after taking the lead twice, has got to be questioned here, as much as we should also applaud the home side for their comebacks. The visitors are now 10 points behind the leaders in the table. This will heap all sorts of pressure on Renée Slegers.

90+2 min: City substitution The outstanding Aoba Fujino is replaced by Grace Clinton.

90 min Five minutes of added time.

89 min Cerci’s daisycutter from distance is comfortably saved by Yamashita.

86 min Andree Jeglertz praised City’s resilience before the game. He’s proved them right because Arsenal have made them work extremely hard for this victory. It always felt like Arsenal needed to score again when they were 2-1 in front, because City were never going to go quietly.

Shaw missed a great chance earlier but she took this expertly. Fujino’s subtle curling pass found Shaw in a bit of space on the edge of the area; she dummied Williamson, turned back onto her right and reversed a shot that wrongfooted Borbe. It took a slight touch off Williamson but I suspect it was going in anyway.

81 min: Double substitution for Arsenal Smilla Holmberg and Selina Cerci on, Emily Fox and Ona Batlle off.

79 min Smith plays a one-two with Fox before shooting too close to Yamashita. Arsenal haven’t been demoralised by that Hemp goal.

78 min Arsenal’s performance has shown there isn’t a huge amount wrong at the club. But they have one very big problem: if it stays like this, they will be 10th in the WSL table and 10 points behind City.

76 min Arsenal come again. Foord cuts inside from the left and hits a deflected shot that is booted clear by Greenwood in the six-yard box.

74 min Fox seemed to dive under that cross from Hasegawa. There was another City player close by, Casparij I think, and that probably distracted her.

A fine team goal from City. After a purposeful move from one of the field to the other, Hasegawa clipped a deep cross from the right that was missed by Fox. Hemp was waiting behind her and controlled the ball deftly before sliding a low shot through the legs of Borbe. The angle was very tight but Hemp finished unerringly.

70 min: Manchester City substitution Laura Blindkilde Brown comes on for Sam Coffey.

69 min Tom Garry, our man at the Etihad, has confirmed that Casparij did indeed score with her first touch.

68 min: Arsenal substitutions Stina Blackstenius and Olivia Smith replace Georgia Stanway and Lisa Baum.

67 min Sensational defending from Leah Williamson, who diverts Beney’s fantastic low cross away from Bunny Shaw. Williamson was six yards out, facing her own goal, and simply had to get that right or Shaw would have scored.

65 min It hasn’t been confirmed but I think that was Casparij’s first touch.

Moments after coming onto the field, Kerstin Casparij scores a belter! City played a series of short passes through the middle of the field until Hemp miscontrolled Shaw’s square ball. The ball ran behind Hemp to Casparij, who opened her body and whipped a curling shot across goal from the left edge of the area. Borbe, at full stretch, got a touch with her left hand but could only help it into the net.

62 min: City substitutions Kerstin Casparij, Mary Fowler and Iman Beney replace Beth Mead, Carlotta Wamser and Niamh Charles.

61 min Fujino runs onto a brilliant pass – not sure who from – and shoots wide from a very tight angle. A better spell for City.

60 min City break from an Arsenal corner. Mead uses Wamser by not using her and then curls over from 25 yards.

58 min Arsenal have been the better team since going 2-1 up; in fact, this might be their chance to put City away. If it stays 2-1, City will have a spell of dominance later in the game.

55 min Charles is penalised for a challenge on Baum, who has caused her problems all afternoon. There’s a long way to go but Arsenal have been terrific.

Alessia Russo had gone seven games for club and country without scoring, prior to Wednesday night’s trip to Paris, and now she has scored in back-to-back games. That’ll be timely news for Sarina Wiegman, ahead of England’s tie against Greece.

Alessia Russo’s first WSL goal of the season is an absolute belter. City got in a tangle in defence, not once but twice. Eventually Hasegawa tried to play out from the back, only to give the ball to Russo, just inside the area to the left of centre. She took a touch and smashed a curling shot into the far corner. Yamashita had no chance.

49 min: Great chance for City! Fujino puts Shaw through on goal with a perfectly timed pass, but a heavy touch from Shaw allows Borbe to dive bravely at her first. By Shaw’s standards, that was a glorious chance.

46 min Arsenal begin the second half.

45+3 min: Arsenal substitution Caitlin Foord replaces the injured Mariona Caldentey.

45+3 min Arsenal were down to ten when the goal was scored, with Mariona Caldentey down off the ball. She’s still being treated and looks in a fair bit of pain.

Shaw held the ball up excellently on the edge of the area and played a short pass to Charles. She moved it onto Hemp, whose driven cross took a big deflection off Fox and whistled past Borbe. That’ll go down as an own goal.

45 min Three minutes of added time.

It was a scruffy goal, the hell Arsenal will care. A corner was half cleared, then driven back into the area by Russo on the right. Wubben-Moy’s downward header bounced up awkwardly in front of Yamashita, who tried to shovel it away but could only push the ball against Baum and back into the net.

Baum looked fractionally offside to the naked eye. I guess we know from recent City matches that the naked eye isn’t always reliable when it comes to offside.

39 min Sam Coffey is down with an ankle problem. Her match might be over.

37 min The resulting corner is taken short and worked back to Stanway, whose low drive from 20 yards hits the side netting. Yamashita had it covered.

36 min: Good save by Yamashita! Fox controls a crossfield pass on the run and drives a crisp shot back across goal. Yamashita gets down smartly to her right to fingertip it round the post. That’s the best save of the match to date.

35 min: Disallowed goal for City! Wamser’s deep cross is claimed by the stretching Borbe, who a split-second later is flattened by Shaw. The ball bounces into the net but the goal is disallowed, either for a foul of because Borbe had two hands on the ball. Possibly both.

32 min The longer it stays like this – not just goalless but largely chanceless – the more important the first goal becomes. It’s not a poor game by any means. We’ve juad an unusual ratio of openings (loads) to chances (very few, if any).

30 min Wamser storms into the City area and is tackled crucially, if riskily, by the stretching Batlle. She had to get that right.

There we have it. ‘Same old City, always cheating!’ is the chant from the Arsenal fans whilst Bunny Shaw is down on the floor, briefly receiving treatment. It took them 26 minutes.

26 min At the other end, Caldentey slithers away form Wamser and into the area, but Wamser stays with her and eventually Caldentey’s cutback from the byline is blocked by the keeper Yamashita.

25 min Shaw charges away from Wubben-Moy and hits a rising shot from 22 yards. It’s too straight and saved comfortably by Borbe. But that was City’s first shot on target and it has got the crowd going.

21 min Baum again tries to run Charles in the penalty area. This time Charles makes an excellently judged tackle, with the ball ricocheting back off Baum for a City goalkick.

There haven’t been many chances but it’s been a fascinating start to the game.

‘Is this a library?’, the Arsenal fans have been asking. In fairness, the home fans have been getting behind their team with chants such as ‘We love you City, we do’ and ‘champions of England, we know what we are’. Meanwhile, Andrée Jeglertz is standing on the edge of his technical area, looking a little frustrated so far. Renée Slegers - under huge pressure to get a result today - is sat in her seat in discussion with her backroom team.

18 min A quiet few minutes; nothing to report.

14 min Baum wins another corner for Arsenal, who are giving at least as good as they get. It’s cleared and City break dangerously, only for the counter-attack to peter out.

13 min An Arsenal corner eventually leads to a driven, angled cross from Caldentey on the left and a header from Wubben-Moy that bounces wide of goal. She was backpedalling beyond the far post and couldn’t force the header on target.

11 min Baum beats Charles with a stepover and lifts a cross towards Caldentey at the far post. Wamser jumps under the ball and Caldentey heads straight at Yamashita from 12 yards.

A tough chance as there was no pace on the ball, but Arsenal will be encouraged by how easily Baum has gone past Charles on a couple of occasions.

9 min Two more corners in quick succession for City, one on each side. Nothing comes of either but they are starting to pin Arsenal back.

7 min A more familiar effort from Mead, a stinging shot from 20 yards that is inadvertently blocked by her team-mate Shaw. City have settled.

6 min Wamser curls a pass around the Arsenal defence that is chested behind by Wubben-Moy. Greenwood’s corner is headed wide by Mead, stooping away from goal at the near post. No chance of scoring from there.

3 min Arsenal have started well, with plenty of possession in the City half. Georgia Stanway, back at her old club, finds the right-winger Lisa Baum, who charges past Niamh Charles and into the area. Baum mishits* a cross that threatens to sneak in at the near post before being pushed round by Yamashita.

* I think it was a mishit cross. If it was a shot, she disguised it beautifully. The players are so good these days that sometimes it’s hard to tell.

1 min Peep peep! City kick off from left to right as we watch.

Around 2,000 Arsenal fans have made the trip to the Etihad for this contest and are making themselves heard behind the goal, away to my right. The turnout from the home fans is not quite so impressive and I’d estimate we’re looking at an attendance of under 10,000 overall. Most of the stand to my left is empty.

Outside the ground, there was an optimistic chap selling half-and-half scarves but very few appear to have been purchased. This is not a game where we’d expect much love between the two teams. They are fierce rivals at the best of times, let alone after the past 10 days’ news. I wonder how long it’ll be until those travelling fans reference Manchester City’s off-pitch plight in their repertoire of songs, once the game gets under way...

“All true, all too true; the Arsenal team have been guilty – very guilty – of uncharacteristic slips in defence, and been fairly dismal in front of goal at the other end,” weeps Charles Antaki. “Alessia Russo is as energetic and as classy as ever, but things around her just aren’t happening.

“Lose this game and not only does the WSL title to look out of reach, but alarm bells start sounding about even third spot and qualifying for the Champions League, given what’s bubbling up in southeast London. What was it that Andrew Marvell said about hearing something at his back? Probably not the London City Lionesses in his case, but certainly in Arsenal’s.”

And so does Arsenal manager Renee Slegers

They were two really good goals [against Paris FC], the way we want to attack, so that was really positive. It’s been difficult with the results – we know what we can do and we want to take the next step in our performance today.

City manager Andree Jeglertz speaks

It’s a strong group – there is a resilience that I think is unique. They never give up.

[On the inclusion of Beth Mead] Beth is a very experienced player so I don’t need to say too much to her. She’s very motivated for the game; she’s playing against her friends and former teammates so of course it’s a special game for her.

GOAL! Brighton 4-1 Charlton (Symonds 90+3) Maisie Symonds completes a thumping victory for Brighton against the bottom club.

85 min: West Ham 0-2 Chelsea The second goal took longer to arrive than they would have liked, but this has been a thumping win for Chelsea. They’ve had 19 attempts at goal to West Ham’s zero. The ‘touches in the opposition box’ statistic is even more striking: West Ham 0-44 Chelsea.

GOAL! Tottenham 1-5 London City Lionesses (Diani 74) And Kadidiatou Diani’s second goal has extended London City Lionesses’s lead at Spurs. As things stand - with Manchester City still to play, we should stress – they are second in the table.

GOAL! Everton 2-1 Birmingham (Mace 72) Ruby Mace’s second goal of the afternoon has restored Everton’s lead.

GOAL! West Ham 0-2 Chelsea (Walsh 80) An emphatic finish from Keira Walsh has clinched all three points for Chelsea.

GOAL! Aston Villa 1-1 Crystal Palace (Larkin 74) Abbie Larkin has equalised for Crystal Palace against Aston Villa, whose winlessness may endure.

68 min: West Ham 0-1 Chelsea Keira Walsh has hit the post for Chelsea, who are on top at West Ham and pushing for a second goal.

With just over an hour played in the 2pm games, these are the latest scores.

• Aston Villa 1-0 Crystal Palace

• Brighton 3-1 Charlton

• Everton 1-1 Birmingham

• Tottenham 1-4 London City Lionesses

• West Ham 0-1 Chelsea

GOALS! Tottenham 1-4 London City Lionesses (Pelova 54; Van de Donk 52) A goal apiece at Brisbane Road. Danielle van de Donk slid London City Lionesses into a 4-0 lead before Victoria Pelova released a teeny-tiny bit of Spurs’ frustration with a crisp left-foot finish.

GOALS! Aston Villa 1-0 Crystal Palace (Maritz 56); Brighton 3-1 Charlton (Seike 54)

Aston Villa, managerless and hitherto winless in the WSL, have taken the lead against Crystal Palace through Noelle Maritz.

Renée Slegers says she has felt the full support of Arsenal’s board and praised her senior players for showing “monumental leadership” this week as she vows to find solutions to recent poor form before Sunday’s pivotal trip to Manchester City.

One win in five matches has put Slegers under mounting pressure. Arsenal let slip a two-goal lead to draw at Paris FC in the Women’s ­Champions League on Wednesday and in the WSL they have slipped seven points behind City, the ­leaders and defending champions, having scored only twice in their four league games.

Slegers was in a determined mood on Friday, speaking of a “strong togetherness” at the club. Asked whether she felt the full support of the board, she replied: “Yes, that’s what I felt. That’s been positive and that’s helped me. The club’s leadership has been really good and positive for me in this moment because everyone thinks this is a difficult time and this is not something that we want for the team and for the club.

“But the leadership from Clare [Wheatley, the director of football], Rich [Garlick, CEO], James [King, director of football operations], Jodie [Taylor, technical director] has been superb. So I want to give everything back to the club.

WSL half-time scores

The five 2pm games will resume any second now. These are the half-time scores:

• Aston Villa 0-0 Crystal Palace

• Brighton 2-1 Charlton

• Everton 1-1 Birmingham

• Tottenham 0-3 London City Lionesses

• West Ham 0-1 Chelsea

Alexia Putellas has scored twice for London City Lionesses, who are 3-0 up at Spurs. Chelsea lead at West Ham thanks to a goal from Melvine Malard.