Arsenal Women 0-0 Man Utd Women: Gunners miss chance to go second in WSL against 10-player United
Arsenal missed out on the opportunity to go second in the WSL after failing to break down 10-player Manchester United in a goalless draw at the Emirates.After Anneke Borbe superbly kept out Fridolina Rolfo's early header, Arsenal dominated Man Utd without ever really threatening to score.
The game further turned in Arsenal's favour when Jayde Riviere was sent off for two bookable offences in the 65th minute, but the Gunners could not capitalise on their player advantage.
Arsenal racked up 25 shots as they dominated possession, but they only had six efforts on target in a performance that summed up their season so far.It's the first time under Renee Slegers, who signed a new deal with the Gunners on Friday, that they have failed to score at home in the WSL as they missed the chance to go above Chelsea into second and close the gap to WSL leaders Man City to five points.
Man Utd, who stay fourth and a point behind the Gunners, were resolute and they held on for a point as the two teams played out a second successive goalless draw this season.
Arsenal can't make dominance tell...
Arsenal attempted 25 shots, their highest total in a single match in the Women's Super League this season.
Manchester United attempted just four shots, their lowest total in the WSL this term.
'The story of Arsenal's season'Izzy Christiansen on Sky Sports:
"Arsenal had the momentum and they dominated Man Utd all over the field, but they have nothing to show for it."It paints the story of Arsenal's season so far.
"It's been frustrating amd they haven't been as ruthless in the final third as they can be."On the other hand, it was a really resolute performance from Man Utd, going down to 10 players."They had a lot of defensive work to do and a lot of ground to cover. They executed a good game plan to come away from the Emirates with a good point."
'We need to be calmer in front of goal'
Arsenal winger Beth Mead on a frustrating game against Man Utd:
"Frustration is probably the biggest word. The first five or 10 minutes we absolutely dominated, made lots of chances but the frustration is we need to be calm in front of goal and we weren't today. That's the big frustration.
Slegers: Two points lost for ArsenalArsenal boss Renee Slegers to Sky Sports: "A game of dominance, apart from that first header they had in the first half. A game of dominance with no reward unfortunately."I think I was happy we had more shots today than we had earlier in the season, around 25, which is good because it means we had more situations from different phases of play - counter-attacks and longer attacks with more players in the box."Not enough shots on target so we are definitely going to be looking at how we're going to be creating more clear-cut chances. Play players to their strengths and get repetition of that final ball and keep working on belief with the squad because we have some excellent finishers and when we're really composed and believe in what we're doing, we can score the goals."We want to climb and look upwards. We lost two points today, it was very important for us today so it makes it a little but harder but we keep on going."'Man Utd were ready for the fight'Manchester United manager Marc Skinner to Sky Sports: "Once we go down to 10 players it becomes a challenge and a fight, and my players were ready for the fight."Can't argue with the referee's decision making, she [Jayde Riviere] put herself in the position where the referee can make a decision. Regardless of how hard or soft I thought it was, we can't put ourselves in that position."You've got to be prepared that Arsenal want that counter-attack, you have to be aware. We had to be defensively solid, collective and then counter which is natural in that situation [with 10 players]."We started the game really well, hit the bar and then let Arsenal get rhythm, we were the downfall of ourselves, and then second half we should have been more dominant, we made the changes and didn't get the chance to use them."A point away at the Emirates is OK for this one, especially down to 10 players."
Sandberg: United happy with a draw
Manchester United's Anna Sandberg to Sky Sports:
"The first 20 minutes we were the better team, but then Arsenal is a really good team and getting a red card isn't what we wanted. There's positives to take with how we defended as a team and to get a draw, we should be quite happy with that.
"We had a lot of momentum in the first 20 minutes but we let them play a bit too much, got a bit low in our defence. We wanted more, but we are pretty happy with a draw.
"It says a lot [about our resilience], we have been in this position for one man down and we defended really good. People have been talking about our defending but we showed what we can do and how good we are at defending, even with one man down."
Story of the match in stats
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