Arsenal Women failed to take control of the game after equalising in their 2-1 defeat to Manchester City, according to boss Joe Montemurro.
Caitlin Foord’s counter-attacking goal levelled the scores at Meadow Park after Ellen White’s 24th minute opener, but City found a late winner through Lauren Hemp to move to within two points of the summit of the Barclays FA Women’s Super League.
The defeat sees Montemurro’s team stay nine points off the top in fourth, and what was most disappointing for Arsenal’s head coach was how the visitors managed to wrestle back the ascendency after his side had scored.
“City had rhythm straight after we scored - that was probably their best part of the game, in terms of consistency,” Montemurro said.
“We tried to break the game down, we tried to break it by putting on a bit of pressure and I think, in the end, when you concede a bit of set-plays in and around the box, you do lose a little bit of momentum.”
Despite playing second fiddle to City for large parts of the contest, Arsenal could point to star striker Vivianne Miedema wasting a number of promising attacks and wonder whether this was a result that got away from them.
Nevertheless, Montemurro was quick to praise his side’s character and energy and believes there are lots of positives to take from the result.
He added: “But all credit to them, they are a quality side. I didn't look at any other results, we never look at other results, we've got our own direction and our own scenario to worry about.
“I can only complement the girls on their fight and their effort. It's always a tough game against City and they definitely showed their quality, their consistency and the ability to keep their rhythm and tempo for the whole 90 minutes.
“We can only control the controllables and that's for us to sort out.”
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