Lucy Parker stuns Arsenal with injury-time equaliser for Aston Villa | OneFootball

Renee Slegers conceded her Arsenal team are already under pressure having dropped four points in their opening four WSL games after Lucy Parker’s late equaliser for Aston Villa. It was the second week in a row the Gunners have dropped points, following a goalless draw at Manchester United last Sunday.

“We’ve lost four points and that’s not what we’ve wanted,” Slegers said. “We need to learn from this and learn very fast. We had more possession and solutions, but we didn’t have enough urgency in and around the box. When the game is 1-0 the opposition always believe they can get back in it.”

It was a frustrating afternoon for the home side in front of 24,712 fans and the point was just reward for a resilient Villa performance that was let down only by a defensive error for Frida Maanum’s early opener. Missy Bo Kearns’s short pass was intercepted by Mariona Caldentey and fed to the Norwegian for her to slot her shot past Sabrina D’Angelo.

Arsenal were worthy of the lead, dominating possession with Kim Little driving play from the middle, but they struggled to capitalise on that dominance, managing two shots on target in the first half despite 28 touches in the opposition area. Villa had a kinder return, one shot on target and four touches. That reflected the level of Arsenal supremac,y but Villa are not an easy side to play against, despite winning one point from their opening two games.

Arsenal experienced their strength in April at Villa Park, with the home side 3-0 up inside 46 minutes before going on to win 5-2. Natalia Arroyo expected “a little bit of revenge vibes” in their first meeting since that defeat, but after the break it was the Villa who looked sharper.

Ebony Salmon went closest in the 53rd minute, her effort slipping narrowly wide of the far post, while they failed to capitalise on a bursting run from substitute Kirsty Hanson.

Arsenal made changes in the 65th minute, Victoria Pelova and Caitlin Foord replacing Maanum and Olivia Smith, and their best change of doubling their lead in the second half came when the ball landed at Foord’s feet in the area , but her hesitation allowed Villa to nullify the danger. A fine save from D’Angelo denied Katie McCabe, while the goalkeeper got low to halt Pelova’s effort from the edge of the area as they sought to lift the pressure late on.

Villa were still much in it though. “The most important thing is dreaming, dreaming, dreaming, trying, trying, trying to the end,” said Arroyo.

The sucker punch of an equaliser arrived after four minutes of added time, Lynn Wilms’s free-kick forcing a fingertip save from Daphne van Domselaar and Parker fired in the loose ball from the resulting corner, leaving the Gunners to regret their profligacy.

“For some reason we didn’t perform at our highest level . Why that didn’t happen is something we’ll have to review,” said Slegers. “We need to stay level headed. We had 19 shots and that’s around where we want to be. We need to analyse it, but not over-analyse it.”

Header image: [Photograph: Harriet Lander/WSL/Getty Images]