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Arsenal stayed six points behind London City.
More Mary Earps: “Yeah, to be honest, it all becomes one big blur and you’re sort of hoping the ref is going to blow the whistle anytime, but all the girls put their body on the line.
“And obviously I love defending. I love defending the goal. I love making saves. So anything I can do to help the team and use that energy from a save to get us some momentum and yeah, it was it was a tough game today. and I think we did a good job.”
“I don’t like to count our chickens before they hatch, but I think we’ve got a really good team. A lot of talent, mentality in abundance. But obviously it’s still very new. A lot of players coming in, including myself in the summer, and, um, you know, it’s gonna take some time to properly, properly jell, but I think we’ve shown amazing signs so far this season. And we just got to keep picking up points as this league is very unforgiving.
“We’ve already dropped points in games that I think we would have really liked to win because teams are going to come and try and take all the points from you home and away and this league is the best in the world for that reason. That’s why I wanted to come home. So yeah, we’ve got a lot of work to do, but I think we’ve made a good start and yeah, it doesn’t stop now.”
Tom Garry
“The Arsenal players are walking around the pitch, applauding their fans, but everything is all a little muted. That’s another frustrating result for Renée Slegers’ team, regardless of the calibre of the opposition. They simply have to start winning games of football, quickly. As for London City, Mary Earps is full of smiles as she takes praise from her team-mates and they go and thank their own supporters in the corner. That was Earps’ best performance for her new team so far.|
Mary Earps, player of the match, says the match was “tiring”. “I think we have a got really good team, talent in abundance. We’ve shown amazing signs this season. A lot of work to do but we have made a good start, and it doesn’t stop now.”
She made eight saves.
The post-match huddle for the Gunners is pensive, with Renee Slegers not looking unhappy while her tired, exhausted players look far more disappointed.
Full-time: Arsenal 1-1 London City
A Russo shot is deflected behind. Up goes Misa to chase the goal. That’s how much they want the win. And yet the corner goes back out of play. The frustration continues for Arsenal, they remain without that home win. That quick exchange of goals was the end of the scoring, and if Mary Earps had plenty of saves to make, Arsenal remained frustrated. London City take their first ever points off the capital city giant.
90+5 min: Into the final seconds. Arsenal make a change as Lotte Wubben-Moy comes on. Very late change, and at a corner, from which Putellas swings and cannot land the ball on target.
90+4 min: London City want to get this back underway, with Mary Earps setting up an attack, and it falls to Putellas, who turns and shoots, just wide. That’s all the space she requires.
90+3 min: Boos as Arsenal try to play quickly and are stopped in their tracks by some tactical fouling. The Lionesses are still pressing high.
90+1 min: Six minutes to be added on, we are told. Baum has go back to stop the dangerous Cascarino. Do London City want this more? Feels like it at the moment?
90 min: As Tom said, there’s some dissatisfaction among the home support. There’s panic, too, when Cascarino shoots from an inside-left position. Relief for the home fans as her shot loops up. Putellas is down, and looks winded.
88 min: Smith tries to barge through but she will not be allowed to do so as a whistle sounds. Boos follow from the home crowd.
87 min: Still a winner to be found here, and both teams chasing it. That Gunners home win stays elusive. We’re told there will be five minutes to be added on at the conclusion.
Tom Garry
86 min: “The attendance has just been announced as 32,588 which is Arsenal’s largest of the season, and it includes Andy Murray, who is watching on with interest. As it stands, the vast majority of those spectators are going to be going home slightly disappointed. A draw is not really enough for Arsenal if they intend of catching London City in the table any time soon.”
85 min: What a save from Mary Earps, legacy stuff as Maanum’s chip is plucked from the air. It was looping into the corner, and she deflects it off the bar.
83 min: Fox departs, as does Van de Donck, her game done against her former club. Smilla Holmberg on for Arsenal. For London City, Freya Godfrey and Janni Thomsen replace Jana Fernandez and Van de Donk.
82 min: Andy Murray is in the Emirates crowd with his daughter, as Fox, holding her ribs, leaves the field after that smash into Grace Geyoro.
81 min: Emily Fox goes down heavy after a collision and there will be a break in play.
79 min: Smith keeps taking it to the Gunners, and charges down the wing. Izzy Goodwin, the London City scorer, is off, and on comes Nicole Anyomi.
77 min: Mary Earps to the rescue as Smith get to the touchline, and deflects the ball out from danger again once more. The former England keeper has been kept busy and showed why she is her team’s No 1.
76 min: Smith and Fernandez clash heads, though are soon back up to resume. Van de Donck is almost caught out by a back-pass. She’s lucky the ball does not drop to a blue shirt.
74 min: Another London City change is about to happen.
72 min: Perhaps a surprise Olivia Smith did not start? Caitlin Foord was at the heart of Arsenal’s best attacks.
71 min: A London City press, a hustle forces a throw, and rime for Arsenal subs: Kym Little is replaced by Kyra Cooney-Cross, with Olivia Smith on and Caitlin Foord off.
70 min: This game is still wide open, up for grabs as the last 20 minutes arrive. Arsenal changes imminent, odd they come so late considering that trip to Barcelona was only on Thursday.
68 min: The Emirates lifted as Baum is sent away, and she checks back, lays up Maanum who drifts her shot just wide. Arsenal at last found the space they craved … London City come back into it, and Cascarino turns, shoots and off the bar. That is quite an effort. Misa was beaten, and flailing.
Tom Garry
67 min: “The Arsenal fans have gone very quiet. Their team can hardly get hold of the ball, at the moment. London City are dominating the possession, inside Arsenal’s half. It’s a long time since I can recall being at the Emirates and watching Arsenal be forced to rely on counter-attacking football.”
65 min: Some London City momentum following those changes. From a corner slipped inside, Geyoro smashes into the side-netting. She had to hit that early, and so lost the time to properly calibrate.
64 min: Putellas has been quiet in this second half. Corrales, just on, smashes over a cross and Arsenal have to clear behind.
63 min: Arques shoots from distance. Too great a distance as it turns out. No worries for Misa.
62 min: London City changes: Cascarino and Corrales come on for Diani and Pattinson.
61 min: Diani escapes on to one of those long passes but cannot get enough purchase on her shot. The angle was too tight.
60 min: A second London City corner is taken short, and the over-elaboration means Van de Donck ends up into the advertising hoardings.
58 min: London City, at least, get the ball clear. Their attacks have become sporadic and Goodwins chases in vain a hopeful clearance. A change is imminent as the hour approaches.
57 min: Foord spins, and is pulled back by Fernandez, who this time cannot pull off the one-on-one stuff. She’s booked.
55 min: Earps called into more action. Foord zings in a low shot and the goalkeeper is asked to deflect the ball away. She does so, averting the danger.
54 min: Sniff of a chance for Goodwin, in on Misa. It’s called offside but looked on. De Almeida, the Gunners defender, had perhaps done a decent enough job of slowing Goodwin down. No VAR, of course. Hence the speed?
53 min: Gordon gets in touch: “Striking how effective Putellas and co are at slowing the play down. Stops Arsenal building momentum, keeps the home crowd quiet, and makes it the type of game that LCL want. I think the visitors will take it in the second half.”
From the start of this half, a less successful strategy but it can work again.
52 min: Arsenal have been dominating, and from a short free-kick, and Stanway fizzes the ball across goal. Argues can only watch the ball go past her and hope nobody gets on the end of it.
50 min: There were, by the way, no changes at half-time. Some to come soon, surely. It was Stanway, to correct myself, who was beaten to the punch by that fine Fernandez tackle. London City take risks, play one on one.
48 min: It takes some amazing defending from Fernandez to stop both Maanum and Foord with a double tackle. Without that, a certain goal. Outstanding defending.
46 min: Away we go in the second half. The Gunners go straight from the gun, Foord trying to play in Russo, and that requires Mary Earps to run out and claim the ball.
The teams are in a huddle – they probably need to be in this ran – and they are ready for more.
Half-time: Arsenal 1-1 London City
That’s been a fine half, and one where more than the two goals we saw was more likely than not. That Maanum goals was near-instantly followed by the Goodwin equaliser. All to play for, and a bit to work on for both coaches.
45+1 min: Into a minute added on and another Goodwin run and a ball fired in, is there to be met, though nobody meets it.
44 min: Arsenal continue to look for the counter, with Maanum trying to lead another attack, only to be thwarted. Leon, up in a promising position, loops a ball out of play.
43 min: Williamson has to step out and clear a ball aimed into the middle of the box, as London City find an overlap.
42 min: Half-time approaches, and that flurry of goals has not been followed up, even if both teams have kept looking for the next.
40 min: London City have come under serious pressure, their early impetus cut down by the Gunners being quicker to the ball, and making those chances. Williamson shows she is not totally off her game – not that we would say that – by expertly closing down Van de Donck.
38 min: Nice move from Arsenal, the ball forces out wide, and Fox digs out a pass wide to Foord. Again, Earps was unlikely to be beaten by that.
37 min: Jeremy Boyce gets in touch: “Sounds like it’s a great game, as you would hope/expect. I’m a huge fan of Leah Williamson, what a player. And setter of examples.
“All the same, your MBM for the Lionesses equaliser tells a more nuanced story than just a goal. “Goodwin carves through, holding off Williamson, and converts.”
“One or two years ago Goodwin wouldn’t have even had a sniff, LW would have seen her off quick time. Are the series of injuries that have deprived Arsenal (and England) of her services starting to catch up with her ? And she’s 29 now, so probably not healing and recovering as easily as earlier in her career.
“I can’t help feeling that Arsenal’s form and fortunes have mirrored her own. Talk about a player being so inextricably identified with a team. Like Aitana Bonmati at Barcelona, or USAUSAUSA’s Megan Rapinoe, Brazil’s Mata.”
35 min: Another of those fast breaks, and Arsenal’s Fox shoots but Earps will not be beaten by a shot of that rather low velocity.
34 min: Misa Rodriguez comes out of her goal to head a clearance that almost doesn’t make its way off. She then makes sure by whacking a back-pass out of play. More than one means to skin a cat.
32 min: Seventh corner for Arsenal, punched clear. Renee Slegers is writing in her notebook. There’s much to discuss, that first home win is being sought.
31 min: Foord evades a series of challenges and sends away Russo, before Baum again takes aim. Another corner. Arsenal are doing well whenever the ball breaks clear from midfield.
29 min: It’s end to end, and Lisa Baum is Arsenal’s main weapon, cutting in and going for top bins. She doesn’t quite get there, and Earps makes a save. Both keepers are being kept busy.
27 min: London City want a handball decision in the box, but instead go for goal as Putellas fires a shot that Misa makes a fine save from. The corner is headed over from Diani, who is crowded out as she reaches the ball.
26 min: Some momentum from Arsenal, and some panic from London City as a cheap corner is conceded. Russo is penalised for a shove.
Tom Garry
25 min: “I wonder if Isobel Goodwin has been told that Sarina Wiegman is here in the stands? The England head coach names her next squad on Tuesday morning and she will surely have been impressed by that strike. Wiegman might also have a watchful eye on Poppy Pattinson at left-back.”
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