Key events
Half-time verdict
Tom Garry
Well, it wasn’t a great half for the first 40 minutes but then it suddenly got quite interesting. I suspect Manchester City will have a few complaints after the game about the decision to award Arsenal’s goal. Lisa Baum looked to be offside, from where I’m sitting – maybe the hosts will come up with some irrefutable evidence, who knows – but there’s no VAR in the WSL so there’s very little anyone can do.
Hemp’s equaliser at the other was aided by a big deflection, but Arsenal didn’t do enough to half the City move earlier. I suspect Renée Slegers will be frustrated that her team were unable to see the half out with their 1-0 lead. These teamtalks would feel very different if they had.
Half time: Manchester City 1-1 Arsenal
A slow-burning first half came to life with two goals just before the break. The dangerous Lisa Baum gave Arsenal a lead that did not flatter them. But nor did it last: within three minutes, Lauren Hemp’s cross was deflected into her own net by Emily Fox.
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+1 min: Manchester City 1-1 Arsenal (Fox og 45+1)
An instant equaliser from City!
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.
GOAL! Manchester City 0-1 Arsenal (Baum 43)
Arsenal strike first through their brilliant teenage winger Lisa Baum!
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.
Tom Garry
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.
Tom Garry
‘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.
Tom Garry
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.
Full-time scores
And with that, the 2pm games are done and dusted. London City Lionesses crushed Tottenham; Chelsea and Brighton enjoyed emphatic victories; Ruby Mace scored both Everton’s goals in their win over Birmingham; and there was more frustration for Aston Villa.
This is what it does to the league table.
I’m off for a quick break before the main event. See you shortly.
GOAL! Brighton 5-1 Charlton (George 90+9)
And Gabby George has made it five for Brighton.
GOAL! Tottenham 1-6 London City Lionesses (Cascarino 90+4)
Yikes. Delphine Cascarino has made it six for London City Lionesses.
GOAL! Brighton 4-1 Charlton (Symonds 90+3) Maisie Symonds completes a thumping victory for Brighton against the bottom club.
GOAL! West Ham 0-3 Chelsea (Hamano 87)
A series of ricochets in the six-yard box leads to a third goal for Chelsea, headed in from close range by Maika Hamano.
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.
Manchester City v Arsenal team news
Beth Mead starts against her old club, one of three changes to the City side that drew with Real Madrid in midweek. Sam Coffey and Niamh Charles also come into the team, Charles for her first City start. Out go Laura Brown, Mary Fowler and Kerstin Casparij.
Anneka Borbe replaces Misa Rodriguez in goal for Arsenal, the only change from their 2-2 draw with Paris FC.
Man City (4-2-3-1) Yamashita, Charles, Rose, Greenwood, Wamser; Coffey, Hasegawa; Mead, Fujino, Hemp; Shaw.
Subs: Cumings, Clinton, Fowler, Wienroither, Casparij, Blindkilde, Beney, Prior, Davies.
Arsenal (4-2-3-1) Borbe; Fox, Williamson, Wubbey-Moy, Batlle; Little, Stanway; Baum, Cooney-Cross, Caldente; Russo.
Subs: Misa, Catley, Foord, Smith, Maanum, Reuteler, Blackstenius, Cerci, Holmberg.
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.
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.
Tom Garry
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:
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.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to live, minute-by-minute coverage of the WSL match between Manchester City and Arsenal at th- hang on, is that a flipping pachyderm over there? The elephant in the room, or at least in the build-up to today’s game, is the extent to which City’s women’s team will be indirectly affected by you know what.
There’s no direct link, nor any suggestion that City will be investigated by the WSL. City’s manager Andree Jeglertz says it’s “business as usual”, but morale is morale and image is image. The ferocity of the external condemnation will surely have some impact. In the short-term that impact could be positive, strengthening the women’s team determination to retain their title.
It’s impossible to speak with authority on the subject, so let’s move on to a different subject: the actual football. (What do you mean we can’t speak with authority on that either?) This is a pretty big game between last season’s top two; and for Arsenal, it has an uncomfortable amount riding on it.
City, the reigning champions, have four wins from four games and are already seven points clear of Arsenal, who were eighth in the table at the start of play. They’ve had a rough start to the season, not helped by a sadistic fixture computer that served up Chelsea and both Manchester clubs in the first five games.
Defeat at the Etihad would leave Arsenal 10 points behind City and with a mountain to climb. A mountain even bigger than that elephant over there.
Kick off 4.30pm.
