Stina Blackstenius gives Arsenal edge over Manchester City in WSL thriller | OneFootball

Both teams knew this was a win or bust moment for their already fading title hopes and, in that spirit, they served up a breathless seven-goal thriller. It was the visitors, Arsenal, who came out on top to surely confine the remainder of Manchester City’s Women’s Super League campaign to merely a battle for European qualification.

City’s fourth defeat in their past six WSL games was another engrossing but mistake filled match that will be hugely damaging for their hopes of domestic success. On the overall share of the chances, Arsenal probably deserved to edge an end-to-end contest.

The errors were littered throughout almost every big moment in the match and began inside the first minute when Laia Aleixandri was dispossessed while trying to control a short pass from goalkeeper Khiara Keating and Mariona Caldentey put Arsenal in front. The away side were 2-0 up just seven minutes later when Keating attempted to punch clear Kyra Cooney-Cross’s free-kick but was beaten to the ball in the air by Lotte Wubben-Moy, who headed in.

Gareth Taylor defended 20-year-old Keating, who also made errors in their 4-2 defeat against Manchester United in January, saying: “We have to be really careful with these young players that we don’t just jump on the bandwagon straight away and lay all of the blame with them.

“If you want to blame someone, then blame me. Blame me. I pick the team. I back my players all of the time. But for us to all of a sudden just look at the game, see the four goals and point to Khiara straight away, I think that is a little bit tough, because we know that there’s a very good goalkeeper in there, but who at the moment is suffering. Our job is to help her and support her as best we possibly can. If that support looks like me pushing back on questions from yourself, then I will do.”

Taylor’s team were the stronger for the remainder of the first half, though, and halved the deficit when Mary Fowler nodded in Aoba Fujino’s right-wing cross, which perhaps the Arsenal goalkeeper, Daphne van Domselaar, will feel she could have done better with. The mistakes from both teams continued after half-time, with Caldentey giving away possession on the edge of her own penalty area to allow the former Arsenal forward Vivianne Miedema to score her fifth goal in her past four appearances in all competitions.

It was also the second time this season that Miedema had scored against her old club, since her summer switch from north London to the east side of Manchester. A minute later, Arsenal went 3-2 up as they sliced through the home side’s defence to see Frida Maanum score in front of their travelling fans.

The next mistake to lead to a goal appeared to come from the officials, as a penalty was awarded for a foul on Fujino by Steph Catley that appeared to have occurred just outside the box, rather than inside it. Fowler did not care and dutifully dispatched the equaliser from the spot.

More momentary lapses followed, with Keating running 30 yards out of her goal to try to intercept a long pass but timing it badly, allowing Stina Blackstenius to go around her and appear certain to score – but the Sweden striker had run too wide and was too hesitant.

The game’s seventh and eventual winning goal was more down to two acts of quality rather than any further blunders, with Caldentey’s super crossfield pass finding Beth Mead in space and the England winger rolled in a perfectly placed low cross for Blackstenius to tuck in the winner and leave Manchester City in fourth spot, 12 points behind the leaders, Chelsea, who won 1-0 at Aston Villa.

Arsenal are still 10 points off the top of the table but have lost only twice this season in the WSL compared to City’s four defeats and have conceded just nine league goals, half of City’s total.

Renée Slegers, the Arsenal head coach, praised her team’s response to their first defeat of her time in charge, at Chelsea a week ago, saying: “It was important. I was hurt of course after the loss against Chelsea. We analysed it. I asked: ‘Who are we? What is the Arsenal way? What is our identity? How will we win games against top opposition?’ The girls were all with us.

“It wasn’t the end of the world from a performance perspective against Chelsea but the loss of the three points meant a lot. I think the group is so strong from game to game and also within the games that we can show resilience and come back – which is what we did today.”

Header image: [Photograph: Alex Burstow/Arsenal FC/Getty Images]