Manchester City v Arsenal Women

On Sunday 2nd February, I travelled up to the Academy Stadium in Manchester to watch Man City Women play Arsenal Women in the WSL. This match was massive for both teams as going into the match they were both level on points at the top of the table. Arsenal were sitting first on goal difference. Both teams knew that a defeat would put a dent in their respective challenges to win the title. They also knew that before kickoff third placed Chelsea were only sitting a point behind them, meaning that the loser of the match could finish the weekend in third place. It was also a very significant day for the Man City team as it was the final game that Manager Nick Cushing would be in charge of as he is moving on to become assistant manager at New York City FC in the MLS.

Both teams had met a couple of days earlier in the WSL Cup Semi Finals where Arsenal prevailed, winning the match 2-1. As this was a massive match for both teams, both managers fielded very strong teams. There were two notable absentees from Arsenal’s starting XI as Lia Wälti and Kim Little were left out of the match day squad. Kickoff finally came and there was a massive buzz amongst the crowd. In the first half, both teams created opportunities but each teams defences and goalkeepers were able to keep the score at 0-0. Arsenal did create the better chances throughout the half but City goalkeeper Ellie Roebuck produced some good saves to keep Arsenal out. However in the 44th minute, Man City capitalised on Arsenal not taking their chances as Caroline Weir crossed in the ball from the right hand side where Pauline Bremer took advantage of some poor defending from Arsenal to slot the ball past Manuela Zinsberger and put Man City 1-0 up. 

At the start of the second half, Man City again took advantage of poor defending from Arsenal as Keira Walsh delivered a brilliant cross into the penalty area where an unmarked Lauren Hemp headed the ball into the back of the net to make it 2-0 to City. This second goal from Man City seemed to wake Arsenal up a bit as a few minutes later Vivianne Miedema played a great ball to Beth Mead who had her shot saved by Ellie Roebuck only for Danielle Van De Donk to score the rebound to make it 2-1 going into the final thirty minutes. Ten minutes later and Arsenal created another fantastic opportunity to equalise as Vivianne Miedema found Danielle Van De Donk in the penalty area only for her shot to be saved by Ellie Roebuck. Towards the end of the match, things got a bit fiery between both teams as tackles were flying in. The main incident in the last ten minutes came in the 82nd minute as Katie McCabe got tackled by Lauren Hemp, who then got taken down by the Arsenal defender. The City players and fans were furious by what had happened to Hemp as the fans were chanting for McCabe to be sent off. After discussing it with the linesman, the referee gave a yellow card to McCabe to the disappointment of the City players and fans. After that incident the game calmed down and after playing 7 minutes of stoppage time, the referee ended the game to confirm a 2-1 win for Manchester City. This was a fantastic way to end for Nick Cushing. It also meant that Man City were top of the WSL with Arsenal slipping down to third place after Chelsea had hammered West Ham 8-0 to put them in second place. 

Player of the match as announced in the stadium went to Keira Walsh. This was thoroughly deserved as she had a fantastic match in midfield from assisting Lauren Hemp’s goal to her non stop work throughout the match. In my opinion, there were a couple of Man City players who could have got player of the match, as the team played fantastically well throughout the whole 90 minutes.