Arsenal’s Mead pegs back Manchester City in topsy-turvy WSL opener | OneFootball

An impressive turnout of Arsenal fans arrived at the Emirates Stadium hoping the women’s team would set the tone for the day, with the men’s team playing the same opposition later in the day. They may not have delivered victory on the opening weekend of the WSL season, but they certainly put on a show, scoring first and last in a thrilling 2-2 draw with Manchester City, in which the hosts’ record goalscorer, Vivianne Miedema, was on the scoresheet for her new club.

Jonas Eidevall made three changes to the side that suffered a 1-0 defeat by BK Häcken in Gothenburg on Wednesday, with Stina Blackstenius, Caitlin Foord and Frida Maanum all coming into the starting XI. Leah Williamson remained absent, with the club announcing before kick-off that they were following concussion protocol.

For City, who earned a 5-0 first-leg win against Paris FC in midweek, there was one change, with Khadija Shaw back in the starting XI after the club had failed to make a visa application for her to play in France.

This is the first time Arsenal have hosted Manchester City at the Emirates in recent years, despite their increase in fixtures at the main stadium. With City’s wide threat so dangerous, condensing them on to the narrower Meadow Park pitch has seemingly been preferred.

So much of the narrative around this fixture was of Miedema’s return to the club where she is the record goalscorer. It was somewhat inevitable that she would brutally expose the team she knows so well within minutes, robbing Kim Little and trying to exploit Manuela Zinsberger being off her line, but her effort went just wide.

The response to the error was instant, though, with Foord’s ball in from the right behind Blackstenius but perfect for the arriving Maanum, who fired in.

Despite City’s dominance in possession, Arsenal had the better chances in the first half and should have doubled their lead when Katie McCabe’s ball over the top was met by Blackstenius, who did well to round the goalkeeper, Ayaka Yamashita, but pulled her shot wide of the near post. With City controlling the game, though, chances up the other end were inevitable, and McCabe celebrated as if she had scored after a big clearance to deny Aoba Fujino.

The equaliser could have only one scorer, though, Miedema evading Little before nutmegging the Scotland midfielder and Lotte Wubben-Moy, her shot taking a deflection off Laia Codina to wrongfoot Zinsberger. The Dutch forward did not celebrate, but she rarely does anyway.

Arsenal would have one final big chance to retake the lead before the break, Maanum playing Blackstenius through the middle, but she held on a little too long allowing Yamashita to come out and block the shot.

The home side were in the ascendancy after the break and had the ball in the back of the net within minutes of the restart, Laia Aleixandri fortunate that Foord was judged to have been narrowly offside when she turned in from close range.

City were patient, though, and they took the lead just before the hour in style. A headed clearance was met by Jess Park, who brought the ball down with one touch before hitting it on the turn. The effort flew towards the top corner deflecting down off the crossbar and in. The pocket of City fans roared as a block in the corner nearest the effort, the rest of the stadium stunned into silence.

The momentum had well and truly shifted, City could taste blood and Zinsberger was called into action to save from Yui Hasegawa, Miedema and Shaw in quick succession. Miedema was among the two changes apiece that came around the 73rd minute, given a warm ovation from both sets of fans as she exited the pitch.

If Arsenal had been unlucky with the offside earlier, then they were fortunate with the goal that brought them level, McCabe bringing down Chloe Kelly, who tangled with Little, allowing McCabe to flick the ball over the pair and play in Rosa Kafaji, who clipped an effort of the bar that Beth Mead turned in.

After seven minutes of added time the final whistle confirmed the spoils would be shared. The happier side? Chelsea.

Header image: [Photograph: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images]