Arsenal’s fifth draw from five home games in the Women’s Super League left them frustrated once again but this was a wholly different story to the previous four, as they played out an entertaining 1-1 draw with a London City Lionesses side inspired by their goalkeeper Mary Earps.
Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Crystal Palace and Manchester United all came to this stadium for a point, defending resolutely and exposing Arsenal’s inability to break down low blocks, whereas London City came to play and were rewarded with a draw that maintains their six‑point advantage over Arsenal in the race for a European place, and moving within six points of the leaders Chelsea.
Earps, producing her best performance to date for the team she joined in the summer, repeatedly denied Frida Maanum and Lisa Baum and was named player of the match in a contest where both goals were scored inside the space of 99 seconds. The impressive Maanum finished off a superb team move for Arsenal to open the scoring in the 10th minute but her goal was cancelled out by a terrific finish from Isobel Goodwin whose head coach, Eder Maestre, said: “We came here to take risks. We really wanted to win.
“Our identity is playing with bravery – we were brave today. We weren’t scared about the context, the opponent, the stadium, nothing. We tried to play as we play at home.”
Arsenal had secured an impressive result in Barcelona on Thursday, drawing with the European champions, but this game against the WSL’s third-placed side felt as though it was of even greater importance, particularly if Arsenal wish to continue visiting venues such as the Camp Nou next season, and they were unable to find a way past Earps to win and close the gap in the table.
Just like they had done away at Anfield last weekend, Renée Slegers’s team made a bright start with energy, pace and the threat of Alessia Russo. Emily Fox’s shot was deflected wide, after a good move that included some excellent Maanum build-up play, before Ona Batlle’s long-range effort bounced wide. It was not long before Maanum tucked in the opening goal after an intelligent cutback from Russo.
The visitors struck back almost immediately, though, as Goodwin did superbly to turn inside Leah Williamson and then demonstrated strength and composure to hold off Baum and fire a lethal finish past Misa Rodríguez with power and precision. It was a timely moment of class from the English striker in front of the England head coach, Sarina Wiegman, who was in the stands before naming her next England squad on Tuesday morning.
Earps then twice saved from Baum from range. After the break, Earps did well again to dive low to her left to divert a Caitlin Foord strike wide, and what followed was a sustained spell of London City possession, territory and chances. Maestre’s team spent a good part of 20 minutes firmly camped in Arsenal’s half and they carved open a good chance for Kadidiatou Diani but her relatively tame, low, near-post effort was saved by Rodríguez.
Diani’s 62nd-minute replacement from the substitutes’ bench, Delphine Cascarino, drew gasps from the crowd as she unleashed a dipping strike that bounced off the top of the crossbar. It was a lucky escape for Arsenal, who had won all seven of their previous meetings with London City across all competitions but were denied by two more fine Earps stops, firstly from a Maanum close-range effort and then from Maanum’s curler, which looked destined for the top corner before Earps touched it on to the bar.
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Viviane Asseyi scored twice as West Ham secured back-to-back WSL home wins after beating rock-bottom Charlton 2-0.
Asseyi’s curled finish put the Irons in front just ahead of the break and she then scored a 25-yard free-kick early in the second half. The defeat saw Charlton, who remain without a point, become the first WSL team to lose all 10 of their opening matches of the season.
Hathilde Harviken’s late goal gave Aston Villa a 1-0 win over derby rivals Birmingham, which gives Brian Sørensen his third win since stepping in as interim manager and leaves his side seventh. Press Association
Slegers’s 50th WSL match in charge of the north London side almost ended in defeat late on but Alexia Putellas’s rising, stoppage-time strike flew narrowly over the bar. Regarding lying sixth in the table after 10 games, Slegers said “the season isn’t over, it’s still November”, before praising her team’s resurgence in their past three matches.
“The team is in a very good place,” she said. “The preparation, the dedication, the hunger for details, doing everything they possibly can – that’s the standard. Things are clicking well. But also the [opponents], they’re teams that spend time on the ball and that are brave and want to dominate games, so the types of games have been different.”
It certainly was different but the end result was the same for an Arsenal team still unable to find that elusive home win.
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