City maintain winning WSL start with imperious Villa victory

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Manchester City Women

·13 September 2026

City maintain winning WSL start with imperious Villa victory

City moved back to the top of the Barclays Women's Super League table with an impressive 4-1 win at Aston Villa.

Jade Rose fired us into an early lead from a corner, with Mary Fowler doubling our advantage before the half-hour mark.

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But Villa hit back just before the break with Amelie Vangsgaard halving the deficit, but once again it was Bunny Shaw who provided the key goal to restore our two-goal lead with a fine finish.

Lauren Hemp had set the Jamaican up for that strike - her 100th WSL goal contribution - and the winger sealed the points late on with a deflected effort to maintain our 100% start to the WSL campaign.

WHAT HAPPENED

As the sun began to set over Villa Park, title holders City took centre stage knowing we could end the second gameweek with the only 100% record in the WSL.

And Jeglertz’s side were certainly up to the challenge in the early stages, with it taking us just 13 minutes to find the breakthrough.

It came from yet another set-piece situation, with Rose tapping home from close range after Akane Okuma had spilled Kerstin Casparij’s dangerous corner.

City were looking sharp and had the hosts on the ropes in the opening exchanges with some typically intricate passing play and high intensity pressing.

And our hard work was rewarded with our second of the evening as Fowler linked with Shaw and fired a vicious shot past Okuma on 29 minutes for her second in as many matches.

We continued to control proceedings but, just before the break Villa halved the deficit with their only shot on target in the first half as Vansgaard, in her first start at Villa Park, slipped her shot past Ayaka Yamashita to leave the door slightly open for the hosts.

But after battling the rain and a Villa storm, City began to take a firm grasp of proceedings.

Shaw rattled the crossbar just before the hour from a teasing Hemp cross, before the latter was denied by the diving Okuma moments later.

At the other end, Yamashita was called into action on 70 minutes to catch Noelle Maritz’s shot with Villa determined to try and punish City on the counter, but we’d add a third soon after.

It was Shaw who helped City shut the door, meeting Hemp’s pass in behind before dinking over the outrushing Okuma to put the result beyond doubt.

The assist from Hemp saw the England international tally her 100th WSL goal involvement, making her just the seventh player to ever achieve the feat.

But there was still one final moment of brilliance to follow from the winger, with her typical industry forcing a fourth deep into stoppage time.

Picking up Beth Mead’s clever reverse pass in behind, Hemp drove towards the Villa defence and fired across goal, with Mathilde Harviken deflecting the ball into the net.

DAZZLING DEBUT

Carlotta Wamser was handed her full debut, and the new summer signing did not disappoint.

We had already seen glimpses of what she can bring to Jeglertz’s side in her 15-minute outing last weekend against Birmingham.

And those same characteristics – pace, power and tenacity – were all on show once again.

She intercepted a handful of Villa passes, provided a constant overlap in the attacking third and just looked right at home in our back four.

SEVENTH HEAVEN

Lauren Hemp’s assist for City’s third goal of the night was her 48th in the league.

Alongside her 52 goals, she has become just the seventh player in WSL history to reach a century of goal involvements.

Incredible!

SET-PIECE SPECIALISTS

City’s impressive set-piece numbers from 2025/26 have continued to bear fruit in the first two weeks of the new campaign.

From our six goals scored from our wins over Birmingham and Villa, three have been from set-pieces.

Clinical.

HOW WE LINED UP

VILLA XI | Okuma, Harviken, Patten, Kielland (Hijikata 75’), Wilms, Parker, Maritz, Grant (Mullet 75’), Vangsgaard (Scott 83’), Kendall (Taylor 75’), McAulay (Deslandes 63’).

SUBS | Kelly.

CITY XI | Yamashita, Casparij (Beney 62’), Rose, Greenwood, Wamser, Blindkilde Brown (Coffey 62’), Hasegawa, Fujino (Mead 62’), Fowler (Clinton 83’), Hemp, Shaw.SUBS | Cumings, Wienroither, Prior, Davies, Burdon.

WHAT IT MEANS

City are the only team to maintain a 100% win-rate in the opening two weeks of the 2026/27 season.

That means we now sit top of the WSL table as the only team with six points.

UP NEXT

City now have four days to prepare for our next league assignment in which we will welcome Liverpool to the Joie Stadium on Friday 18 September.

Kick-off is set for 19:00 (UK), with the fixture available to watch live on Sky Sports for fans in the UK, with our usual suite of matchday coverage also accessible on mancity.com and the Official Man City App.