Man City 3-4 Arsenal: Gunners clinch victory in seven-goal WSL thriller as Stina Blackstenius scores late winner after Chloe Kelly transfer storm

There might have been a sense that today’s blockbuster fixture between third and fourth placed Manchester City and Arsenal would be a quieter affair compared to the off-field matters of the last few days.

It was a thrilling deadline day in the WSL on Thursday which saw the return of Keira Walsh to England to join Chelsea and Chloe Kelly departing the Joie Stadium on fiery terms for Renee Slegers’ greener north London pastures.

Kelly was unable to start against her parent club today, but it turned out that this game didn’t need another storyline.

Seven goals, a penalty awarded for outside the box and the return of WSL top goalscorer Bunny Shaw after weeks of injury showed that the talking was more than safe being left to the pitch.

With Chelsea looking to be running off into the distance, both teams came into today’s fixture with more realistic hopes of chasing a Champions League spot than pipping the champions.

Such has been the topsy-turvy nature of both Manchester City and Arsenal’s seasons that today’s game seemed to carry far less weight in the title race than it usually would.

City have been beset by injury to their star players Shaw, Lauren Hemp and Alex Greenwood and their performances have suffered as a result.

And for Arsenal their start to the season under Jonas Eidevall – where they won just one of their opening four top-flight games – also looks to have taken its toll on their overall points tally.

Slegers has done a wonderful job in turning around the Gunners’ fortunes and confidence, but a narrow defeat last week at Stamford Bridge seems to have been one more than this team could afford.

On these circumstances then, the visitors did an excellent job in putting last week’s defeat behind them.

City have been so vulnerable playing out from the back in recent games, and Arsenal smelt early blood. They came out fast and pressed high and Laia Aleixandri was the latest to fall to the trap within the opening minute.

The City defender was caught in two minds and Arsenal’s World Cup winner Mariona Caldentey read it, nicking the ball off her feet and powering into the City penalty area before smashing it past Khiara Keating.

Seven minutes later Arsenal won a free-kick and Kyra Cooney-Cross floated a wonderful diagonal cross into the box to find Lotte Wubben-Moy, who leapt the highest. The Arsenal defender – who was in for the suspended Katie McCabe – wheeled away to celebrate in front of a silenced City crowd.

After the opening onslaught however, City managed to regain a foothold in the game, knocking the ball around with more fluency and starting to threaten Daphne Van Domselaar’s goal.

They were rewarded for their efforts 10 minutes later when Mary Fowler nodded in Aoba Fujino’s cross from close-range and half-an-hour later City went into the break a goal down but looking much improved from their opening moments of madness.

If there were any expectations that the game would be tempered in the second half, then much to the joy of the crowd it did not.

Vivianne Miedema, who had wasted a couple of chances earlier in the game, drew the hosts back level five minutes after the restart.

Seconds later, City were still celebrating when Frida Maanum tore through the centre of the park and regained Arsenal’s lead.

This wasn’t to last long, though, with City winning a penalty after Steph Catley brought down Fujino. Replays showed that the contact was made outside of the box, and without VAR, there was no way of overturning the original decision.

Fowler converted, bringing her goal involvement tally up to 10 for the season, the joint-highest in the WSL alongside Bunny Shaw.

But it was Arsenal who were left to have the last laugh though, with Beth Mead teeing up Stina Blackstenius, who stabbed home.

This was the third time Arsenal took the lead in this match, and it finally proved to be one too many for the hosts.