That’s all from me. If you want more live football coverage, head over to Tom Bassam’s clockwatch of today’s Premier League action:
Tom Garry’s report has landed. It’s good. Read it.
Kerstin Casparij speaks to Sky Sports, saying it must have been “quite a fun game to watch”. She is named player of the match after her goal and assist from right-back and said: “We get a lot of freedom in this system and it gives me a lot of opportunities to get forward and attack.” What about a title challenge now? “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves but this was such an important win for us. We are pushing to win the league. But it’s still early days.”
After match-winner Iman Beney credits her teammates’ performances, Casparij calls her a “humble queen”. The youngster at least admits: “To score against Arsenal in the last minute, it’s something special.”
The home fans are celebrating vigorously because they know what this means. These head-to-head games between the ‘big four’ always seem crucial, come the end of the season, and these are three big points for the hosts.
Well, that was fun. Caldentey’s equaliser straight after the break set the tone for a topsy-turvy second half. Casparij’s bundled second was then cancelled out by Kelly’s eye-catching equaliser before Beney, on as a substitute, scored the decisive goal in the 88th minute. Ooh, that will sting for Arsenal. They are now three without a win and five points off the WSL summit.
Full-time: Manchester City 3-2 Arsenal
It’s all over! Russo has the final chance of the game but her header from Kelly’s cross is wide. After a seesaw game, Man City go to within one point of WSL leaders Chelsea courtesy of 19-year-old Iman Beney’s late winner.
90+6 min: Catley wins a corner for Arsenal. This is surely their last chance.
90+5 min: Arsenal push forward in search of what would be their third equaliser of the game.
90+4 min: Kelly wins a foul off Shaw in the Arsenal half when really it looked the other way around …
90+3 min: Kelly bumps into Ouahabi, giving City the perfect chance to take the sting out of the play.
90+1 min: City throw on Sydney Lohmann for Blindkilde Brown.
90 min: Six minutes of added time. Plenty of time for another twist.
GOAL! Manchester City 3-2 Arsenal (Beney 88)
Is that a winner? A long ball is brought down by Shaw, whose pass finds its way to Beney and the finish is hard, low and exactly what City were looking for as Arsenal threatened a winner of their own.
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86 min: Arsenal can smell blood now. Yamashita sends a wayward pass out of play and Slegers’s side make camp on the edge of the City box once more.
84 min: Kelly threatens again, sending a low shot just wide from the edge of the box. What a shift in the mood at the Joie Stadium.
GOAL! Manchester City 2-2 Arsenal (Kelly 83)
Just as I was about to say she was struggling to get into the game, Chloe Kelly hauls her team level! The former City winger curls a shot, with the aid of a deflection, into the far corner from the edge of the box!
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80 min: Arsenal bring on Frida Maanum, who has three goals to her name this season, for Caldentey. Kyra Cooney-Cross is on as well. Little goes off.
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79 min: City get caught on the edge of their own box and Blackstenius fires a warning shot, albeit well over.
78 min: City threaten a third! Fujino finds Shaw in the box and, after her initial pass is blocked, the striker stings the palms of Van Domselaar at her near post. Hasegawa’s inswinging corner is cleared by Arsenal.
75 min: Miedema makes way for Laura Coombs, another former Arsenal player. City needed fresh legs in that midfield.
These final 20 minutes feel big for Arsenal. Really big. After they dropped points at home to Aston Villa last time out, they’ll be under pressure if they lose this and they won’t have an easy week, starting the defence of their European title at home to the French giants OL Lyonnes on Tuesday. Renée Slegers looks deep in thought on the touchline.
73 min: Arsenal test Yamashita again from the resulting corner but City survive again.
72 min: Should be 2-2! Rose’s short backpass is pounced on by Blackstenius. The Arsenal striker is one-on-one with Yamashita but loses out, her shot blocked by the City goalkeeper and Greenwood sends the loose ball behind.
70 min: Those substitutions don’t seem to have stopped Arsenal’s momentum. Mead gets the ball out of her feet and tests Yamashita with a low drive from the edge of the area.
68 min: A mostly warm welcome from the City fans for Kelly, whose bitter departure seems to have been largely forgotten. Maybe those heroics in the summer helped.
67 min: Arsenal bring on the big guns. Chloe Kelly, Beth Mead and Stina Blackstenius emerge from the bench. Foord, Smith and Pelova go off.
66 min: McCabe’s free-kick and the resulting Arsenal corner keep City guessing but come to nothing.
64 min: Arsenal swing the tempo of the game back in their favour. Smith wins a foul off Blindkilde Brown on the edge of the box. McCabe will take.
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62 min: Van Domselaar makes a crucial save! Shaw gets on the end of another cross and almost doubles City’s lead straight away but the Arsenal goalkeeper is equal to her header. Crikey, this is wide open now.
GOAL! Manchester City 2-1 Arsenal (Casparij 61)
The resulting corner ends up in the back of the Arsenal net! Greenwood picks out Shaw at the back post and Van Domselaar parries her header back out. Casparij is one of a couple of City players tussling for the rebound and she gets enough on the ball to see it over the line.
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60 min: Iman Beney has come off the bench for City and is straight into the action. Miedema plays the young Switzerland international in and her shot is deflected into the side netting.
58 min: Smith is a constant threat. A combination with Fox sends her down the right again but the Canadian’s cross is misjudged and drifts towards the opposite corner flag.
57 min: Smith sends a gorgeous pass into Russo with the outside of her boot. The England striker swivels and shoots but her effort is way off target.
55 min: Casparij appears to be the out-ball for City. Anything else they try is being met with an Arsenal challenge or interception.
52 min: Shaw is up and about again, trying to get on the end of a long ball from Rose but Fox deals with the threat.
49 min: Well, whatever Slegers said at half-time has had the desired effect. Arsenal are all over City. They are being physical as well, Catley clattering into Shaw and leaving her on the deck. Jeglertz’s side look shaken.
Caldentey is so sharp from kick-off. She opened the scoring inside the first minute of Arsenal’s 4-3 win here last season and now she’s scored within 60 seconds of the restart.
GOAL! Manchester City 1-1 Arsenal (Caldentey 46)
Arsenal waste no time in levelling the scores! Fox’s cut-back finds Caldentey inside the penalty area and the Spaniard’s sweeping finish beats Yamashita at her near post.
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Second half begins
Bunny Shaw gets us under way once more.
A reminder of the options available to both teams off the bench:
Man City Keating, Layzell, Coombs, Wienroither, Lohmann, Beney, Prior, Thomas, Adedini
Arsenal Zinsberger, Reid, Codina, Hinds, Cooney-Cross, Maanum, Mead, Kelly, Blackstenius
Charles Antaki writes in with some half-time thoughts:
All the Arsenal players look off the pace, except perhaps for Emily Fox, and the absence of Leah Williamson means collywobbles in the centre of the defence. Maybe things will improve when she returns to the team, but in the meantime a lot of players will be getting a serious bit of chat from Slegers at half-time.
Lotte Wubben-Moy might be excused for a little rustiness. She’s played just a handful of minutes this season and didn’t get off the bench for England at the Euros (again). This is her first start since April.
Half-time: Manchester City 1-0 Arsenal
Shaw is OK and City will be thankful for that. She’s been the outstanding player in this first half and is the scorer of the goal that separates the two teams at the break – a header from Casparij’s cross in the 36th minute.
Slegers has some thinking to do now. While her side have been good on the ball and Smith in particular has looked dangerous, they’ve struggled to get to grips with Shaw and Miedema.
45+2 min: Wubben-Moy catches Shaw late and the City striker goes down holding her ankle. Bit of a concern for Jeglertz just before half-time.
45 min: Fujino lets fly from the edge of the area but her shot goes over. Three minutes have been added.
44 min: Foord twists and shoots on the edge of the City box but Yamashita gets down comfortably to gather.
Shaw let Arsenal off the hook there. She beat one player too many when it would’ve been easier just to take the shot early.
40 min: Arsenal are rocked! City have the ball in the net again as Casparij flies into space and plays the ball across to Shaw. The Jamaican delays for too long and her shot is eventually blocked, with an offside Casparij tucking the ball home.
38 min: Shaw looks in the mood now. Miedema plays her in behind with a perfectly weighted pass but the flag goes up as the striker goes to round Van Domselaar. It was tight.
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That’s four goals in five games for Bunny Shaw so far this season.
GOAL! Manchester City 1-0 Arsenal (Shaw 36)
City take the lead! Fujino battles hard down the right and plays a pass to the overlapping Casparij. The right-back’s cross is headed expertly past Van Domselaar by Shaw.
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35 min: Shaw gets her head to the corner and a foul is given for a challenge on Yamashita.
34 min: Smith and Foord both fire crosses into the City box as Arsenal try to turn the screw. They have a corner …
31 min: Shaw is released in behind the Arsenal defence but Van Domselaar is there to slide in and clear the ball. There’s definitely space in behind the Gunners’ high line.
30 min: Yamashita is called into action as Pelova feeds Foord and the Australian’s shot is parried by the City goalkeeper. The flag goes up anyway.
28 min: City go close again! Fujino’s cross is met at the back post by Miedema, whose header is saved by Van Domselaar. Clinton can’t force the rebound in either.
26 min: City hit the bar! Van Domselaar scrambles to bat away a corner from underneath her own crossbar and the ball bounces off the top of the woodwork and drops safely behind.
It’s been a poor game so far. Both teams’ passing ranges have looked a bit off, and neither goalkeeper has been made to sweat. Compared to last night, when we were treated to end-to-end football between the top two, Manchester United and Chelsea, this one hasn’t come to life quite yet.
23 min: Little is finding pockets of space in the Arsenal midfield but tracking Miedema is proving a harder task. Her former teammate ghosts in behind her and drags a shot wide from quite a way out.
21 min: Arsenal beat City’s press really effectively as Pelova finds Caldentey but the latter’s cross drifts behind for a goal-kick.
20 min: Greenwood’s corner is deep, Shaw gets on the end of it but her header is wide.
19 min: Miedema finds Fujino on the edge of the box but Catley is there to block the shot. Corner to City …
18 min: City have had more of the ball overall but Arsenal look much more dangerous around the penalty area.
16 min: Smith, a bit shaken but smiling with the physios, is back on after receiving treatment.
15 min: Slegers is asking her wingers to push high and wide. Smith goes to close down Ouahabi by the touchline and gets a whack as the left-back clears the ball. The medical staff are on.
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12 min: Smith has another go at driving at the City defence. Foord does the same from the other wing and Casparij takes a risk with a sliding tackle that takes neither ball or player.
10 min: Fox does well to put a stop to a City breakaway by keeping pace with Clinton and winning the ball back. Shaw had dropped deep to try to pull the strings.
8 min: Smith tries to find Russo with a low cross but Yamashita cuts it out. Shaw then has a pop from distance at the other end for City but finds an Arsenal body in the way. Lively start!
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7 min: Russo causes problems down the City left and Casparij clatters into Smith on the edge of the area. Slegers is asking for a free-kick and perhaps a little more but the referee isn’t forthcoming.
5 min: Fujino snatches at City’s first chance, making very little contact with a volley as the ball dropped out of the sky.
3 min: Arsenal manage the first shot at goal as Caldentey’s effort from the edge of the box is safely gathered by Yamashita.
2 min: No goal in the first minute this time as Arsenal test City’s ability to play out from the back.
When these teams met here on this ground last season, it was quite simply a WSL classic. They served up a seven-goal thriller, and Mariona Caldentey had Arsenal in front inside the first minute, before they went on to win 4-3. Anything similar today and we’re in for a treat.
Kick-off
After the players gather together in the centre circle for a moment of unity, the ball is rolling at the Joie Stadium. The rain in the air and on the ground should make for some slick football and maybe (hopefully) a few interesting challenges.
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Both teams will observe a minute’s silence before kick-off today as a mark of respect to the victims of the attack on a synagogue in Manchester on Thursday. Players are also wearing black armbands with the message ‘A City United’.
Manchester City’s men’s team will also hold a minute’s silence at Brentford tomorrow, with Manchester United’s men doing the same at home to Sunderland this afternoon.
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Vivianne Miedema is another taking on her old employers today. She has found the net in both WSL fixtures against Arsenal since leaving them for Man City at the start of last season.
Arsenal will again have a job keeping her quiet today – she’s scored in each of her last three games in all competitions.
Her record at Arsenal reads:
172 games
125 goals
4 trophies
The conditions are, frankly, atrocious. The rain is relentless and the wind will be a factor too. There are fans in ponchos, some with umbrellas flipping inside out and some fans who underestimated the strength of the storm are now regretting wearing their lightweight summer jacket.
Tom Garry will be checking in from the Joie Stadium in a few moments – he was also at Leigh last night to watch Manchester United 1-1 Chelsea.
Sonia Bompastor’s WSL champions dropped points for the first time this season after Anna Sandberg’s sumptuous equaliser. Here’s his report:
Andrée Jeglertz and Renée Slegers are familiar foes on the touchline. From 2021 to 2023, Jeglertz’s Linköping faced Slegers’s Rosengård seven times in Swedish football.
Slegers had the measure of Jeglertz more often than not, winning five times and losing just once in all competitions. Her Rosengård side were Swedish champions in 2021 and 2022:
I think especially that year I was coaching in Sweden at Rosengård, what he did with the Linköping team was impressive. If you look at the players they had and the resources they had and the football they played, it was really, really good and I’ve always had a good relationship with Andrée. I think he’s a great guy and a good coach.
Chloe Kelly has to make do with a place on the bench for the third game in a row. Her exit from Manchester City – initially on loan in January – came with some parting shots as she accused the club of having “called reporters to assassinate my character and tried to plant negative stories about me”.
Renée Slegers has been speaking about Kelly’s return to her former club and the pressure that comes with it:
I think Chloe has gone through a lot of things in her football career. She’s now representing us and we’re very proud of that. I think she’ll find the right levels. I think that’s special with Chloe, that she has fire inside her. When she uses it in the right way, which she’s been doing, it creates so much for herself and for the team.
We’ve played some high-pressure games with Arsenal last season. She’s shown such a good side of herself with grittiness, resilience, but also composure and I’m really impressed with that.
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Team news
As promised, here are the confirmed starting lineups:
Man City (4-3-3): Yamashita; Casparij, Rose, Greenwood, Ouahabi; Clinton, Hasegawa, Blindkilde Brown; Fujino, Shaw, Miedema.
Subs: Keating, Layzell, Coombs, Wienroither, Lohmann, Beney, Prior, Thomas, Adedini.
Andrée Jeglertz makes just one change as Jade Rose comes in for Gracie Prior after City’s 4-1 win against London City Lionesses last weekend.
Arsenal (4-2-3-1): Van Domselaar; Fox, Wubben-Moy, Catley, McCabe; Little, Caldentey; Pelova, Smith, Foord; Russo.
Subs: Zinsberger, Reid, Codina, Hinds, Cooney-Cross, Maanum, Mead, Kelly, Blackstenius.
Renée Slegers makes three alterations to her XI that drew 1-1 with Aston Villa as Lotte Wubben-Moy replaces Katie Reid at centre-back. Victoria Pelova and Caitlin Foord start on the wing as Frida Maanum and Beth Mead drop to the bench.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off in the WSL, as Manchester City and Arsenal do battle at a wet and windy Joie Stadium. This fixture produced seven goals in February, with the Gunners on the right side of a 4-3 scoreline, so strap in for hopefully more of the same (nicely jinxed, I think).
Today’s hosts come into this one off the back of three straight wins after their opening-night defeat to Chelsea, while the European champions remain unbeaten this season but have drawn their past two games. Chloe Kelly is back, it’s Miedema v Mead, and Storm Amy is wreaking havoc – there are talking points aplenty in Manchester.
You can get in touch with your comments and questions using this email.
The action gets under way at 12pm (BST) and the team news will be along very shortly indeed.
