Grace Clinton made a memorable debut for Manchester City by scoring in their 5-1 victory over Tottenham, ending the latter’s unbeaten start in the Women’s Super League.
Tottenham, one of four teams with maximum points before this match, struggled against City, who are thriving under Andree Jeglertz’s guidance.
City took the lead in the 23rd minute when Aoba Fujino curled a shot into the top-right corner after receiving a pass from Khadija Shaw. Despite Lize Kop’s efforts, she couldn’t prevent the goal. Six minutes before halftime, Vivianne Miedema doubled City’s advantage with a header from a corner, despite Cathinka Tandberg’s attempt to clear it off the line.
The game got even better for City just before halftime. Substitute Kerolin’s deflected shot landed perfectly for Kerstin Casparij, who scored with a close-range header. Although Shaw missed a penalty after Fujino was fouled by Clare Hunt, it didn’t affect City’s momentum.
Clinton scored City’s fourth goal by placing the ball into the bottom-right corner following excellent play from Kerolin on the left wing. Olivia Holdt managed to score a consolation goal for Tottenham with an impressive finish in the 87th minute. However, City substitute Laura Coombs sealed the win with a goal in stoppage time.
In another match on Friday, London City Lionesses secured their first WSL victory with a 2-1 win over Everton at Goodison Park. Isobel Goodwin scored twice for the Lionesses. Her first came in the 13th minute when she hit the ball off the crossbar after Everton failed to clear Kosovare Asllani’s corner.
Goodwin added her second goal by beating Courtney Brosnan inside the box following Nikita Parris’ cutback. Despite Nicole Momiki converting a penalty for Everton after being fouled by Jana Fernandez, London City held on to claim their milestone win.
Tottenham’s Struggles Against Manchester City
Tottenham aimed to win their first three WSL games of a season since 2021-22 but faced difficulties against Manchester City. Spurs have only won once in their last 12 league encounters with City, losing 11 times. Their sole victory was back in September 2021.
The match statistics highlighted City’s dominance as they recorded an expected goals (xG) total of 4.35 from 24 shots, including ten on target. In contrast, Tottenham managed an xG of just 0.47 from six attempts at Khiara Keating’s net.
This result marked back-to-back wins for City for the first time since March under Gareth Taylor and ensured they avoided going over ten WSL matches without consecutive victories since 2015.