Arsenal v Manchester City: Women’s Super League – live! | Football

Peep peep! Arsenal are on course to go top of the table after a ruthless first-half performance. City had plenty of the ball but were punished for some imperfect defending by Vivianne Miedema and Kim Little

45 min Greenwood threads a nice through pass towards Hemp, who is just beaten to the ball by the diving Zinsberger.

42 min Hemp goes on another thrilling run from the left, beating Maritz and Williamson before her low cross is blocked at the near post by Zinsberger. The resulting corner bounces around dangerously. City keep the ball alive and Zinsberger saves instinctively from Greenwood after spilling a cross at her feet.

40 min Arsenal break from that City corner, with Little running straight through on goal from the halfway line. Stokes, who started a few yards behind Little, catches her up and makes a fine last-ditch tackle.

40 min Corner to City on the right. Weir’s inswinger is headed away with authority by Beattie.

38 min Williamson curls a pass over the defence towards Little. Taieb comes out of her area and humps the ball to safety.

35 min This is Arsenal’s best spell, which is an odd thing to say when they are 2-0 up. Their two goals came against the run of play, but they have dominated possession in the last few minutes.

32 min Walti’s snapshot is headed away, then Taieb plunges to her left to save Mead’s curling shot.

29 min Miedema takes a short corner, gets it back and slides a low shot that is kicked away at the near post by Taieb.

28 min Little’s cross from the right takes a deflection off Coombs and loops onto the top of the crossbar!

27 min Taieb did get a hand to Little’s shot, and there are some who think she should have done better. It was a cracking strike, though, which was always veering away from her.

26 min City are staring at a third straight defeat in all competitions, which doesn’t happen very often. Indeed the last time they lost consecutive WSL games was May 2018.

Walti fed a straight pass into Miedema, who stabbed it cleverly round the corner to Little. She wriggled away from Greenwood and Coombs, just inside the area, and blasted a rising drive past Taieb.

Two Arsenal attacks, two goals!

21 min A quiet period. City are still dominating possession, though they could do with getting the ball to Hemp more often. She has the beating of Maritz.

16 min White stays down after a forceful challenge from behind by Williamson. The referee didn’t give a free-kick, but White is in a fair bit of pain.

15 min Weir plays it short to Hemp, whose cross is cleared.

14 min The goal aside, City’s under-strength team have started really well. Beckie wins a corner on the right, which Weir will take…

12 min Losada flicks a shot with the outside of the boot that is blocked by Williamson.

The goal stemmed from a short backpass by Kennedy. Taieb charged out of her area to meet Mead, who rode the challenge and gave the ball to Miedema on the edge of the area. She turned smartly and rammed the ball into the net with her left foot. There were a couple of City players between her and the goal but Miedema beat them with ease. Kennedy holds up her hands in apology; it was a bad mistake.

Vivianne Miedema gives Arsenal the lead!

8 min Hemp charges past Maritz and stabs a good pass to Weir, whose cross deflects dangerously across the six-yard box before McCabe clears. City have started well, Hemp in particular.

7 min White, back to goal, tees up Weir for a long-range drive. She doesn’t connect properly and Zinsberger makes a comfortable save.

6 min Hemp has her first run at Maritz and wins a corner for City. Losada takes and Mead heads clear.

5 min It’s been a slow start to the game, with lots of City possession in their own half.

3 min Stanway, filling in at right-back, is penalised for a high challenge on McCabe. Their duel could be all sorts of fun.

Kim Little and Ellen White lead their teams onto the field. It’s a bright, blustery evening in Boreham Wood, with a decent crowd in attendance.

The teams in formation

Arsenal (4-3-3) Zinsberger; Maritz, Williamson, Beattie, Catley; Walti, Little, Maanum; Mead, Miedema, McCabe.
Substitutes: Williams, Wubben-Moy, Patten, Schnaderbeck, Nobbs, Heath, Parris, Iwabuchi, Foord.

Manchester City (4-3-3) Taieb; Stanway, Kennedy, Greenwood, Stokes; Coombs, Losada, Weir; Beckie, White, Hemp.
Substitutes: Keating, Park, Angeldahl, Shaw, Scott, Mace.

Arsenal are unchanged from the 4-0 win over Reading a fortnight ago, but their new signing Tobin Heath is on the bench. City make two changes, both enforced, from that defeat to Spurs. The injured pair of Esme Morgan and Steph Houghton are replaced by Caroline Weir and Demi Stokes. With City short in defence, Georgia Stanway will play at right-back.

Hello and welcome to live coverage of Arsenal v Manchester City from Meadow Park. This is a huge game, even this early in the season, between two of the three teams with a realistic chance of winning the title. Arsenal have already beaten the champions Chelsea, and a win tonight would give them a chance to control the title race from the off.

City lost that opportunity when they were surprisingly beaten at home by Spurs a fortnight ago, though they were almost comically unfortunate. They’ve had equally bad luck with injuries, and their makeshift defence have a job on against an Arsenal team who have scored 21 goals in six games this season. The tougher the challenge, the greater the reward. If City win they will be level on points with Chelsea and Arsenal, and all will be well with the world.

Kick off 6.45pm.