Taylor: City’s objectives are clear | OneFootball

Gareth Taylor says City still have plenty to fight for in 2024/25 despite the setback of a 4-3 defeat to Arsenal in the Barclays Women’s Super League.

The Blues recovered from two goals down at the Joie Stadium to leave the game finely poised at 3-3 with 15 to play, but Stina Blackstenius’ close-range effort earned the Gunners the points.

City now sit fourth in the WSL table, but Taylor pointed out that a League Cup semi-final against Arsenal this Thursday gives his side a chance to respond.

And with nine more WSL fixtures still to play and the Blues just two points outside the top three, the boss says qualifying for Europe and picking up silverware remain important and realistic targets.

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“Of course it’s a blow, you don’t want to lose games against teams you compete with in those places,” the boss said of our defeat to Arsenal.

“That’s our objective now, to be in the qualification places at the end of the season.

“If we’re gaining positives and it’s hard to pick them out but the fightback was really good, we kept coming back after 2-2 and 3-3 as well.

“A lot of things weren’t quite right with us today, that start, two goals in eight mins is really difficult to deal with but the players eventually got back at the start of the second half and turned it round.

“I felt even at 2-1 down I thought we had lots of oppos, Aoba and Mary were very good, we felt we could hurt them in those areas, we just needed to be better without the ball today.”

The boss also expects his players to respond to the disappointment of our defeat against Arsenal.

City reacted to a loss against Manchester United in the WSL by beating our rivals in the League Cup quarter-finals, and Taylor is confident that a similar reaction is possible at Meadow Park.

He said: “This group are usually really good at fighting back.

“It’s always the job, if you win you move on to the next game with confidence, if you don’t you pick up the players ready for the next game.

“Usually, we strike back and fight back every single time.”