Man City’s new resolve makes WSL title bid possible

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Welcome to The Counter Press, a new Sky Sports column in which Laura Hunter analyses the big talking points from the latest Women’s Super League matches, bringing you closer to the key stories at the heart of the women’s game. This week:

👊 Man City’s new resolve examined
🔗 Park’s key role for Man Utd
💯 Bompastor’s incredible win rate

Man City have nerve for title bid

Often title charges hinge on a moment. Sometimes it’s a goal or performance from an individual, others it’s a particularly important result at a key juncture. For Manchester City it’s undoubtedly the latter. Saturday’s 3-2 win over Arsenal should act as their watershed moment.

Before Saturday, Man City were without a win in eight games vs Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd – having already lost to Sonia Bompastor’s side this season. That run equates to two points from a possible 24. And such a return made it impossible to keep pace at the top.

This year, there is less appetite for excuses. City are not involved in Europe, nor have the distractions that appeared to derail last year’s inconsistent campaign. Gareth Taylor has been changed for Andree Jeglertz in the dugout and the squad is certainly better balanced. Injuries have subsided, albeit Mary Fowler is still missing and Lauren Hemp is back sidelined.

Still, having successfully negotiated a quarter of the season within touching distance of Chelsea, City are long-overdue contenders. Jeglertz’s tweaks have landed well, underwritten by a new brand of belief.

“The team is showing when they have setbacks, they don’t do their own things, they just keep going,” he said on Saturday. “The game was won by us believing.” Arsenal’s two equalisers would have crippled City teams of old. Former winger Chloe Kelly knew the drill, slapping the Gunners badge as she dragged her new side level in the 81st minute. Here we go again.

Arsenal pushed and then probed again and again. Frida Maanum went close. But City held their nerve for long enough to allow teenager Iman Beney, introduced from the bench late on, to find a memorable 88th-minute winner. Quality matched by conviction.

Tactically, their evolution has been just as impressive. 18 minutes into the game Arsenal had forced 37 final-third entries to City’s nine. Overloads and rotations and quick switches were a problem throughout the game. But the biggest moments belonged to City and were epitomised by an irrepressible Bunny Shaw.

The opener set the tone. Shaw cleared a corner with her head in one box, then went straight up the other end to nod Kerstin Caspari’s cross home. Climbing to her feet after scoring, she barely broke character, choosing instead to wear a fierce, intentioned look. No smile. It told a story.

Speaking in the summer Shaw openly admitted last season did not go to plan:”It was humbling,” she told me. “We are 100 per cent serious about what we want now. It’s strictly business.” The determination for a different outcome is crystal clear.

And if anyone is going to guide Manchester City to divine glory for the first time in nine years, it’s probably her.

‘Electric’ Park proving potential

When Manchester United let Grace Clinton leave for Man City in August, I was quick to criticise. Why would any club with ambition allow one of their most promising young central midfielders to join a direct rival? The core of that argument still stands. But it’s tempered by what Man Utd received in return: Jess Park.

Perhaps the better question back then was why the club competing in the Champions League could not have both? Park’s impact since joining has been explosive. Her and Clinton together would run most midfields – a theory only Sarina Wiegman will have the pleasure of testing in future years, should the pair impress enough to warrant consistent England selection.

The loss of Clinton remains a heavy price to pay, if indeed her move was the key facilitator in luring Park away from Man City, but still, the 23-year-old has been a revelation completely off her own back. She has become a Man Utd player almost overnight.

Marc Skinner’s side do not play football like Man City. Traditionally, they don’t play with the same fluidity nor press as high up the pitch. But Park has been a key driver of positive change. “She’s electric, she twists, she turns,” Skinner said after Friday’s valiant 1-1 draw with Chelsea. “She was incredible”.

United have recorded the most open play sequences of 10+ passes in the WSL this season (66), and are showing out-of-possession improvement too. Their chance conversion rate (18.46%) ranks top. But it’s Park’s personal numbers that best underline added influence. Beyond her goal and assist in four WSL starts, she is a proven technician on the ball, up there with the best ball carriers in the league.

“We’re much more fluid now,” recognises Skinner. “Jess is a big reason.” Her link-up with Ella Toone has added a touch of class and options are opening up all over the pitch. It’s expansive and exciting.

A lesson in the value of risk and reward.

Can anyone stop bullish Bompastor?

Chelsea might have been halted in their tracks by Man Utd on Friday but their direction of travel is no less frightening. Under Bompastor, they remain the WSL’s most feared force.

The Frenchwoman took charge of her 100th league game as a manager in that contest and has still only ever lost twice – never with Chelsea. She has posted an extraordinary 90 wins. Her Lyon and Chelsea teams have scored 323 goals in that period and conceded just 48.

For all the improvements elsewhere – Man City’s refinement, and Man Utd’s remedy – Chelsea are forever the ones to beat.

Read the last Counter Press column

Last week’s edition examined Michelle Agyemang’s influence for Brighton, Maya Le Tissier’s leadership at Man Utd and Tottenham’s upturn under Martin Ho.

Live on Sky next weekend

Get ready for a bumper edition of Super Sunday next weekend, with all six Women’s Super League ties taking place on the same day. Our coverage will guide you through all the action from 11am, as Chelsea host in-form Spurs, Man Utd travel to Everton and winless Liverpool take on Man City – all live on Sky Sports!

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