Iman Beney’s 88th minute winner saw Manchester City clinch all three points against rivals Arsenal in dramatic fashion on a cold and rainy afternoon at the Joie Stadium.
It was a close contest between the two sides and the deadlock remained unbroken until Bunny Shaw opened the scoring ten minutes before the break. Manchester City were stunned 42 seconds after the restart when Mariona Caldentey fired a shot rippling into the top of Ayaka Yamashita’s net but player of the match Kerstin Kasparij restored their lead with half an hour to go.
Chloe Kelly came off the bench to torment her old club, scoring with just seven minutes left on the clock. She thought she had dealt the final blow, but late heroics came in the form of Iman Beney who’s late winner, slot coolly past Arsenal’s Daphne van Domselaar, marked her first goal in sky blue.
The five-goal thriller ended 3-2 to Manchester City, sending them to second in the table, one point behind league leaders Chelsea following their 1-1 draw with Manchester United on Friday evening.
Arsenal’s attack showed grit to come from behind twice against a fierce City side, but this latest defeat puts them five points off the top of the table. Mustering just two wins out of their first five matches, boss Renée Slegers admits it’s a less than desirable start to their campaign.
“We are very disappointed with today’s result,” said Slegers. “And we were disappointed with the results against Manchester United and Aston Villa as well.”
“We know that this league is small and as a team we always want to be consistent.
“But there are some really good teams in this league and in different ways they all make it really hard for you.
“Whatever is within our control, we want to try and control, but of course, we’re disappointed. We always go for three points.”
Man City boss Jeglertz praises ‘never say die’ attitude
“The game was won by us keeping on believing,” said Andrée Jeglertz at full-time. “There was no player thinking ‘now we just need to protect this result’.
“That is not happening in this group. This group is still believing that we will create scoring chances and we will win the game.”
Jeglertz was appointed head coach at Manchester City in July, stepping into the role after leading the Denmark women’s national team at the Euros this summer.
In his first five games, he’s produced a fine track record, only dropping points once on the opening game of the season against title defenders Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
But to win the league, a feat Manchester City haven’t achieved since 2016, he has a big task on his hands.
As rivals Chelsea push for their seventh consecutive title, it will take almost perfection to push them off the top spot.
But Jeglertz’s is adamant his players can do it.
“I can be in front of the team and say ‘I believe we can win the league and we can beat all the teams’ – but if we don’t do it, it can become empty words,” he said.
“So for the group to have that feeling that we can challenge and we can beat them is important.
“We lost against Chelsea so we needed this win over Arsenal to also make sure that when we play these teams again, we believe we can win. Confidence as a team is the most important thing.”
Manchester City next face Liverpool away at Anfield who are yet to pick up a point this season.
Manchester City (4-2-3-1): Yamashita; Casparij, Rose, Greenwood, Ouahabi; Blindkilde Brown, Hasegawa; Fujino, Miedema, Clinton; Shaw
Arsenal (4-2-3-1): van Domselaar; Fox, Wubben-Moy, Catley, McCabe; Little, Pelova; Smith, Caldeney, Foord; Russo
Featured image courtesy of Steven Taylor.