Manchester City Women are the current Women’s Super League (WSL) champions. They won 18 out of their 22 matches last season and they had a proactive summer transfer window – signing Niamh Charles from Chelsea, and Beth Mead from Arsenal among others. They have won all six games this WSL season, including their most recent one against Brighton.
Brighton, however, have had a very different season, they currently sit at twelfth, having won only one game so far. 18 minutes into their game on matchweek 6, Manchester City were 3-0 up, and were in complete control. Two goals from Shaw and one from Charles expressed City’s attacking dominance, and it seemed as if the game was wrapped up before it had properly got under way. Brighton’s on-paper inferiority seemed to be manifesting itself neatly into the game. However, they quickly wrested back control, gaining possession and creating chances for themselves. A goal from Garcia followed by another from Hayes forced the game into a precarious position again.
The second half was largely uneventful — especially compared to the goal-filled first half. City had the only shot on target in the second half. They worked to prevent Brighton from scoring, which put a stop to the end-to-end football seen in the previous 45 minutes. The quality of City’s football dropped after the initial 18 minutes and it did not improve, even after a few half-time changes. This was commented on by City manager, Andree Jeglertz, who said that “As a team we just became more comfortable.”
This comfortability, or complacency, is manageable against Brighton, who lack the power to combat City over the full 90 minutes, but with Chelsea only two points behind them in the table, they cannot afford to switch off in matches against more formidable opponents.
Despite this scare, Manchester City remain heavy favourites to win the league again this year. They have the leading goalscorer so far in Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw and Lauren Hemp has the most assists this season. Last year, they were aided by not being in the Champion’s League, and therefore having more time for recovery. They are without that advantage this year, but with a deeper squad, they seem set to go far in both competitions, so long as they do not repeat the mistakes made in this game against Brighton.
Photo by Jonny Gios on Unsplash under the Unsplash license.
