Much more to come from Manchester City insists Taylor after draw at Arsenal | OneFootball

Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor said that there’s a lot more to come from his side after they played out a 2-2 draw with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium this afternoon.

Frida Maanum’s early goal gave Arsenal the lead in North London but Vivianne Miedema levelled matters for the visitors against her former club. Manchester City then took the lead just before the hour mark through a Jess Park stunner before Beth Mead came off the bench to rescue a point for the hosts late on.

When speaking in the post-match press conference, Manchester City head coach Taylor said that he was happy with the point and insisted that there’s an awful lot more to come from his side this season.

“Yeah, [I’m happy with a point],” Taylor said. “I’d be happier with three but given the context of the game; season-opener at the Emirates, a big crowd – people need to understand what that does to the players, it’s a big game, it feels almost like a final.

“We have to be fairly content. We know there are areas that we can work on for sure but the exciting thing for me is that we’re actually not at our best, far from it today. That excites me because if this team can do that when they’re off-colour and still come away with a point, that’s a real positive.”

It was an emotional return to Arsenal for new Manchester City attacker Miedema. Taylor was pleased with how the player managed the big occasion.

He said “It’s what Viv does. She scores the first goal for us in Europe in Paris in midweek and she gets the season-opener for us at her old club. She’s just got that ability and probably should have scored before that, the chip with the keeper.

“She shows her quality at the right moments. It would have been a big day for her today, it’s a tough one to get through because there will have been some nice moments for her. I’m sure it’s one that she is happy to put to bed now.”

Arsenal levelled matters in the 81st minute with Mead converting from close range. Taylor believes that the goal maybe shouldn’t have stood with Katie McCabe potentially commiting a foul in the build-up.

He said “The ref doesn’t give a foul that was a clear foul in the context of the game. I was informed by the fourth official that they indicated to the referee that it should’ve been a foul, so did the linesman. She decided to go against it which is her prerogative to do that. Maybe she’s seen something that we haven’t, maybe she thought McCabe got the ball but I just felt that it was a dangerous tackle from behind.”

Manchester City return to action on Thursday evening when they take on Paris FC in the second leg of their UEFA Women’s Champions League Round 2 tie at The Joie Stadium.