I’ve written about an existential crisis here a number of times, and it’s the theme of the season so far. It feels a little like staring into a bottomless pit and knowing there’s a decent chance you’ll just bounce right back. Even if we finish bottom, we may well stay up, and that’s an odd place to be.
City have won 8 of their last 10 games, losing only to fellow big dogs, Chelsea and Arsenal. Any hope could be placed somewhere between a snowball’s chance in hell and said hell freezing over; even a point here would have been a miracle. But we got as far away from a point as possible, battered 6-0 with ease by the City Group™ juggernaut as they roll onwards to a league title, and we stare a bit deeper into the bouncy void.
We started Alisha Lehmann and Noemie Mouchon for a bit of attacking intent alongside plenty of grit, graft and running elsewhere. Janina Leitzig is still missing from the squad, with Olivia Clark starting in goal again.
The first 20 minutes were far more even than anyone could have predicted. There were 3 or 4 times when Bunny Shaw had some space on the left-hand side of our defence, requiring us to throw multiple bodies in front of the ball. We were able to work the ball down the left a few times, with strings of passes that made sense, rather than just getting rid of the ball as quickly as possible. Lehmann found herself with some time and space on the penalty spot and got a good shot away, and hit the post.
We saw the same Bunny Shaw chance a few more times, with Vivianne Miedema hitting the post in between, until finally, Shaw scored the most difficult of those chances in the 22nd minute. A goal felt inevitable, and to tell you the truth, it felt like a shower of goals would be very possible here. And barely five minutes later, Miedema snatched the ball from Ashleigh Neville and gave it a good whack, and then it was 2-0.
This was a free hit; our goal difference is already atrocious, and we should try to learn how to score some goals. There was certainly some danger of a Leicester City goal here. Neville swung a nice ball into the box, Lehmann connected with it well at the back post, and it was saved well by Yamashita. But the ball was turned loose, and Shannon O’Brien hit the crossbar for yet another almost goal. I’ve watched every single WSL game we’ve played this season, and this had started as the most entertaining.
But that carefree attacking spirit left us more open than usual. And that meant we were 3-0 down after 35 minutes due to a Miedema header. At this point, it felt like this could go beyond fun and get a bit nasty. The players had one of those huddles where they must just be swearing a lot, and then Kerolin crossed in from the right-hand side for Hasegawa to tuck away, almost unmarked in the box. At this point, I did have a look at what the biggest WSL win was, and I chose not to write that down, so as not to anger the vengeful football gods.
At the start of the first half, we were treated to a split second of Rick Passmoor frantically pointing at something in a club-branded notebook. Whatever was in there, he needed to roll out quickly, as Kerolin scored a fifth Man City goal after just a couple of minutes.
Our best hope was that they simply get bored with being really good at football and decide to go down a few gears. With Miedema and Kerolin both coming off after an hour, two of their biggest attacking threats were off the pitch. But one of those substitutes, Aoba Fujino, dribbled through our defence and slotted it home before anyone was able to quite take the ball off her. You don’t really need reminding of the gulf between the two Cities here, but that, alongside a 6-0 scoreline, illustrates it pretty vividly.
We did keep trying to get forward, but it was mostly whoever was on the ball getting squeezed off the ball by some properly set up pressing. It was honestly fascinating to see Man City’s off-the-ball game. They were on the verge of scoring nearly all of the time, and then when they did lose the ball, they were still able to deal with it effectively.
In the 80th minute, Mouchon was still sharp enough to pounce on some sloppy play between Manchester City’s keeper and defence, but she seemed a bit surprised to have such a golden opportunity and shot well over the bar. We managed to finish at 6 rather than 7 nil down, when Bunny Shaw was flagged offside in the last minute.
This wasn’t anything that we didn’t expect to happen, and it’s not materially changed our situation at all. We now have an entire month to wait until we play Liverpool in the middle of March. If we don’t win that game, we’re looking at that relegation play-off game. If you want my prediction, it will be against Newcastle, and we’ll lose. See you next month!
The Fosse Way 