Manchester United frustrate Arsenal in WSL after Jayde Riviere sees red | OneFootball

A team from Manchester and a team from London will have been pleased with this result, but neither of them were here. Manchester City and Chelsea were the real winners, as Arsenal and Manchester United played out a goalless draw and lost further ground in the title race.

United played the final 25 minutes with 10 players after Jayde Riviere was sent off for a second bookable offence, a late challenge on Caitlin Foord, but a resolute United withstood Arsenal’s late pressure.

It means Manchester City could be 10 points better off than third-placed Arsenal by the end of the weekend – City play Everton on Sunday – while Manchester United are a point further behind. Arsenal, without a WSL title since 2019, left the pitch dejected, downbeat and disappointed.

“We make it harder for ourselves with this result. We wanted three points today, so that’s two points lost,” said Renée Slegers, but she declined to give up on the title. “As long as it is still possible, we keep on chasing.”

That now feels like a long shot, with Manchester City in such relentless form. Arsenal have lost one league game this term, but this was their fifth draw and a lack of a ruthless edge was their downfall again, in a game that ultimately did little to warm the crowd of 37,627 on such a cold day.

Marc Skinner, who was taking charge of his 100th WSL games as Manchester United head coach, similarly was not conceding the title, saying: “I’m not going to say we’re out of it. We’re going to chase, as we always will.

“Manchester City have had the benefit of not having any European football, no distractions, but it only takes one moment of wobble. Sometimes you have to pray for that and hope that they could do that [wobble].”

Skinner refused to blame Riviere despite her dismissal. “It’s not the smartest [thing to do], but I’m not going to throw her under the bus. She’ll learn from it, we’ll learn from it. Knowing Jayde, she’ll be devastated.”

The game came a day after Arsenal announced their head coach, Slegers, had signed a new three-and-a-half-year contract and the Dutchwoman received a warm cheer from the home crowd before kick-off. By the end, they were booing the United goalkeeper, Phallon Tullis-Joyce, for perceived time-wasting. She made a crucial save in second-half stoppage time to keep out Victoria Pelova’s low drive that had looked to creep in. That was perhaps as close as the hosts came, despite dominating.

A point apart in the table, the teams were fully aware of the significance of the result in the race for Champions League places, with at least one of the so-called big four guaranteed to miss out on Europe.

The visitors started brightly and Anneke Borbe had to make a fantastic save to divert Fridolina Rolfö’s header on to the crossbar from a Jess Park cross, after Park had combined well with Anna Sandberg down the left. Arsenal controlled the remainder of the first half, with Mariona Caldentey shooting wide, Olivia Smith’s close-range effort being blocked by Tullis-Joyce and Kim Little hitting the sidenetting.

After Riviere’s dismissal, the game was played almost entirely in United’s defensive third of the pitch but the visitors held out well.

Skinner gave debuts to two new signings, the striker Lea Schüller and the right-back Hanna Lundkvist, as second-half substitutes. Schüller was brought on shortly before the red card and was never given much chance to get into the game, in an attacking sense, as the visitors sat deep once they were a player down.

Lundkvist came on to add numbers to the backline after the sending off and made a solid start to life in England. Arsenal also brought on debutant Smilla Holmberg, but this was not their day.

Header image: [Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA]