Even Chloe Kelly cannot rescue Arsenal as they fold under pressure again

They were also both pleasant surprises. Arsenal thrive with nothing to lose but when they dearly needed a win against a title rival, as they did on Saturday lunchtime, they faltered. The London club are fifth in the WSL, five points off Chelsea at the summit.

City, by contrast, are second and only a point in arrears of the champions. They lost at Stamford Bridge on the opening day but have responded with four straight victories under their new head coach, Andree Jeglertz. This win will give them considerable confidence and, without the burden of European football this season, City could be Chelsea’s biggest challengers.

Arsenal were meant to assume that status, but they look anything but the best team in the league at the moment. They attack without conviction, are vulnerable from set pieces, and miss Leah Williamson in defence. Their superstars — from Mariona Caldentey (the reigning PFA Player of the Year) to Olivia Smith (women’s football’s first £1 million player) — are not on top form.

City deservedly took the lead after an uneventful, inaccurate opening half-hour. Aoba Fujino released Kerstin Casparij, who had not been tracked by Caitlin Foord, down the right. Casparij’s dinked delivery found Bunny Shaw, and the striker planted a header past Daphne van Domselaar.

Arsenal did not respond, and City should have gone 2-0 up moments later. A simple long ball from City put Casparij and Shaw clean through on goal with only Van Domselaar to beat. Casparij squared for Shaw and Van Domselaar lost her footing but, inconceivably, Shaw delayed her shot and allowed the goalkeeper to recover. Casparij was clearly offside when she tapped in the rebound, and Arsenal limped to half-time a goal down.

Caldentey showed a glimpse of her class, equalising 42 seconds after the restart with a sweeping, first-time finish. Yet this moment of magic could not cure Arsenal’s sloppy play.

Smith wasted a brilliant position with a rash cross as Arsenal enjoyed a good spell after equalising, and this waywardness proved costly. City soon won a corner, from which Shaw had a header saved before the ball hit off Casparij and trickled over the goal line. For the second game in a row, Arsenal had conceded a soft goal from a corner.

Slegers sent on Kelly, who accused City of trying to “assassinate my character” during her acrimonious departure in January. She inevitably hammered home an emphatic equaliser to display, as she did at Euro 2025, that she adores attention and pressure.

Her former club would have the last laugh, though. Arsenal’s leaky defence let Shaw’s lay-off reach Beney, who fired in her first City goal and extended Arsenal’s downward spiral.

Manchester City (4-2-3-1): A Yamashita — K Casparij, J Rose, A Greenwood, L Ouahabi — Y Hasegawa, L Blindkilde Brown (S Lohmann 90+2) — A Fujino, V Miedema (L Coombs 76min), G Clinton (I Beney 59) — K Shaw.

Arsenal (4-2-3-1): D van Domselaar — E Fox, L Wubben-Moy, S Catley, K McCabe — K Little (F Maanum 80), V Pelova (S Blackstenius 68) — O Smith (C Kelly 68), M Caldentey (K Cooney-Cross 80), C Foord (B Mead 68) — A Russo.

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