Arsenal Women won their first trophy under new manager Joe Montemurro with a 1-0 win over Manchester City Women in the Continental Tyres Cup final.
Despite this only being Montemurro’s first trophy as Arsenal manager, the result takes the club’s tally up to 44.
To inflict City’s second loss of the season Arsenal had to sit tight for most of the second-half and maintain their seventh straight clean sheet but managed to do damage in the first-half.
Securing Arsenal’s record fifth League Cup was Vivianne Miedema who put the gunners ahead with a nice finish after half an hour.
Arsenal almost took an early lead in spectacular fashion. Coming onto the ball first time from about 25-30 yards out Domique Janssen smacked it goalwards but could only hit the crossbar:
https://twitter.com/FAWSL/status/974002368688934914
Just after the half an hour mark Arsenal broke the deadlock through Miedema. After some great one-touch play between Jordan Nobbs and Janssen, a cross into the box wasn’t dealt with allowing the 21-year-old to take the ball on her chest before sliding it through the Ellie Roebuck’s legs in the City goal:
https://twitter.com/FAWSL/status/974007775423614979
City did manage to test Sari van Veenendaal late in the half despite Arsenal being on the front foot for the most part.
Cutting in off the left wing, Georgia Stanway hit a driven shot from the edge of the box which looked like it could sneak into the top corner, but the Algarve Cup-winning keeper did well to keep Arsenal ahead going into the break.
In an attempt to freshen things up as soon as possible, City boss Nick Cushing decided to make a change at half-time, taking off Nadia Nadim off for Jane Ross, but it would be Arsenal to threaten the goalmouth first after the break.
After hitting the crossbar in the first half, Janssen came close to scoring instantly in the second-half, however, she couldn’t get her close range free-kick to come down quickly enough.
Ross did manage to make an impact within the first ten minutes of the second-half as she found space deep in the Arsenal box, but Van Veenendaal held her shot well before Stanway hit another long range effort which flew just over.
After resisting Manchester City’s growth into the game, Arsenal had a chance to go two up on the hour as Miedema lost her marker smartly, but former gunner Steph Houghton was able to block the Dutch player’s shot.
City continued to improve, however, and after spending some time in the Arsenal half, things sparked into life as Nikita Parris lost her marker in the box but her header from the edge of the six-yard box was directed straight at the Arsenal keeper.
As the FAWSL’s 2nd placed side piled on the pressure even more, they saw the ball fly by the Arsenal goal twice in quick succession.
Firstly, as their tempo increased Parris got herself to the byline before fizzing a cross past van Veenendaal which was put behind for a corner which saw her have a header cleared of the line.
Despite that energetic start after the break, City just couldn’t quite find the finishing touch and late on two moments virtually won the cup for Arsenal.
As City drew more desperate a shot was being lined up from outside the box, but Danielle van de Donk flung herself in front of the shot to block it. Shortly after, in Cushing’s side’s last serge into the Arsenal box, Leah Willliamson made a perfectly timed tackle to bring the game to a close.
After celebrating this Continental Cup victory, Arsenal head into their F.A. Cup quarter-final against Charlton winning hoping to keep their chances of completing a cup double.
For Manchester City they’re also in F.A. Cup action and will travel to Sunderland Ladies to try and get back to winning ways.