Arsenal put the Girls’s Tremendous League title race on a knife-edge and handed Emma Hayes’s Chelsea a lifeline, coming from behind to earn an exciting 2-1 win away at Manchester Metropolis.
Stina Blackstenius’s late double cancelled out Lauren Hemp’s first-half opener to go away the house workforce – hoping for his or her first league title since 2016 – reeling. Chelsea took full benefit later within the day, hammering Bristol Metropolis 8-0 to wipe out their aim distinction arrears. The outcomes depart Metropolis three factors away from Chelsea, who’ve a sport in hand, however with Hayes’s aspect now proudly owning a superior aim distinction of +46 to Metropolis’s +45. The title can be selected aim distinction ought to Chelsea win their two remaining video games and Metropolis beat Aston Villa on the ultimate day.
“I all the time stated I believed it will go to the ultimate sport and it’s by no means modified,” stated the Metropolis supervisor, Gareth Taylor. “In fact, it will have been good to win the sport in the present day. We have now one other alternative now at Villa. We have now to win the sport first and hope that’s sufficient to win the title. They [Chelsea] opened the door the opposite night time [with defeat at Liverpool] and we’ve opened it again once more somewhat bit. It’s what it’s, however nothing has modified in our thought course of. We knew we needed to go to Villa to win on the final day of the season.”
In the meantime, Arsenal can be left questioning what if, with 9 factors from their video games in opposition to Metropolis and Chelsea one of the best file of the three in opposition to one another this season. Defeats by West Ham, Chelsea and Tottenham have price them a severe title problem.
“We have now been missing consistency, however we’ve got proven a extremely excessive potential and that’s the place these outcomes come from,” stated the Arsenal supervisor, Jonas Eidevall. “If we take our eyes away from the league desk for a second, for us, coming right here, getting a win – which is seven years since we did – it was not solely about this season however about us setting a footprint for subsequent season. We have been in a position to present what we’ve got progressed and developed.”
At a sold-out Joie Stadium the pyrotechnics have been rolled out, fireworks readied, and music blared forward of kick-off. There was a celebration ambiance, and fears {that a} considerably staggering Arsenal may spoil it appeared surprisingly absent.
Taylor’s aspect had met Arsenal twice this season already, struggling a 2-1 away defeat within the reverse fixture in November earlier than incomes a 1-0 win over the Gunners to knock them out of the FA Cup fifth spherical. Because the league defeat, Metropolis have been flying, not conceding greater than as soon as in any of their 15 video games. Defeat by Arsenal was adopted by a 1-0 loss to Brighton, however they regrouped and have gained each league sport since.
Regardless of the lack of Jill Roord to harm and, in April, star striker Khadija Shaw, Taylor’s aspect have regarded cohesive, medical and have pressed with an depth that few groups can deal with. It was no totally different on Sunday, the house workforce urgent aggressively and excessive from the off, forcing errors from an underwhelming Arsenal aspect.
The opening aim got here within the seventeenth minute. Emily Fox headed away Mary Fowler’s cross however solely so far as Leila Ouahabi, the full-back laying it off to Hemp who twisted earlier than lashing a low shot previous Manuela Zinsberger. The England ahead raced in direction of the dugout to embrace the substitute and membership captain Steph Houghton, that includes in her remaining dwelling sport earlier than her retirement on the finish of the season.
Metropolis’s press eased off within the second half and it gave Arsenal a foothold within the sport, however they struggled to create clearcut possibilities, set items offering their most harmful moments. That easing off, although, would show expensive.
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“It’s a hotter day than we’ve had right here for a very long time, so I believe it’s that,” stated Taylor. “However, additionally, generally the mentality is to guard what you’ve got fairly than construct on it.”
Because the clock ticked down, the gamers in crimson appeared to more and more really feel they might get one thing from the sport. With an enormous travelling contingent roaring them on behind the Metropolis aim, they poured ahead. The equaliser got here from a set piece within the 89th minute, the ball pinballing across the field earlier than the substitute Blackstenius caught out a toe to poke the ball past Khiara Keating.
The winner arrived three minutes later, the half-time substitute Kim Little’s ball excessive nodded in by Blackstenius to finish essentially the most audacious smash and seize and threaten Metropolis’s title cost.