Manchester United substitute Melvine Malard snatched an 83rd-minute equaliser to earn her side a 1-1 draw with Arsenal, with former United striker Alessia Russo getting the Gunners’ goal in an intriguing Women’s Super League clash on Sunday.
Given a hostile reception by many home fans in the day’s early kickoff, Russo had a number of good chances before breaking the deadlock with a tidy finish in the 63rd minute as Arsenal dominated their hosts.
United struggled to threaten the Arsenal goal until Malard got enough on Rachel Williams‘ header from a corner to steer it past Daphne van Domselaar and into the net.
“I felt the first-half was a little bit cat and mouse,” United manager Marc Skinner said after the match. “Arsenal were going to create chances more on our turnovers and I felt when we opened up, we didn’t utilise that more.
“So we started to go hunting for the ball, lost our shape a little bit and in the second half, Arsenal started really well, especially for 20, 25 minutes. But we defended really well. We had to. They had good momentum, which I’d expect.”
United are unbeaten in the WSL this season, with Sunday’s draw their first time dropping points.
“You’ve got to take the point where you take the point,” Skinner said. “We weren’t at our best today. I’m not really disappointed that’s part of learning. I’m really happy we’ve taken a point. We leave the game with a positive frame and lots to learn.”
After a rocky start to the season that resulted in the sacking of manager Jonas Eidevall, Arsenal are unbeaten under head coach manager Renee Slegers having won their two games prior to the draw with United.
“Now we have only played six games. You know against the top teams, it will be important to win and especially from where we come from, and that’s why the disappointment is so big today,” Slegers said after the draw.
“We did a lot of things well. We had lots of involvement from the players on what we wanted to achieve in this block of games, and we did a lot of those things. Performance-wise, there was a lot of positives but then again, the disappointment was only one point.
“I think they [the players] feel over the full game we were better than United and we should have gotten the three points. It’s constructive, they all feel very motivated, and they take a lot of positives from the performance.”
With five more games to be played on Sunday, Manchester United were third in the table on 11 points with Arsenal fifth on nine.
