Manchester City a ‘different outfit now’ but Arsenal’s week worsens

Manchester City are “a different outfit now” and can achieve success this season, said captain Alex Greenwood after they booked their place in the Women’s FA Cup quarter-finals.

It means they remain in the hunt for three trophies this season and Greenwood wants them to go into Friday’s crucial Women’s Super League game against Chelsea (19:15 GMT) and the League Cup semi-finals full of confidence.

“If you turn up thinking you’ve already lost the game, you probably have. It’s a mindset situation for us now,” Greenwood told BBC Sport.

“We’re so strong mentally and go into every game thinking we can win. Why not? We are in a great position in the league and are three points off [leaders Chelsea].

“We want to win the league. In the past, we’ve said ‘we’ll see how it goes, we’ll see what happens’. I’m not afraid to say it any more – I want to win the league and I want to go there next week and beat Chelsea.

“We look strong from set pieces, we look strong from defending set-pieces and the group is just really confident.”

City boss Gareth Taylor, who won his first trophy with the club as manager in 2020 in the FA Cup, said it was “crunch time” in the season as they hunt for silverware.

“Everything is so tight. We’re in the semi-finals against Chelsea in the League Cup,” he added.

“We’re now into the quarter-finals [of the FA Cup]. Hopefully we can get a home draw! But it’s just great to be in it.”

Redemption for Keating’s ‘skeleton in the wardrobe’

Sunday’s victory felt like revenge for City, who dominated on their last trip to Meadow Park in the WSL but fell to a frustrating 2-1 defeat by Arsenal.

City goalkeeper Khiara Keating, 19, came off the pitch in tears after her mistake led to Stina Blackstenius’ 87th-minute winner – but she played a vital role in victory this time around.

Keating made numerous saves late on to deny Blackstenius, Kim Little and Victoria Pelova, which Taylor said felt like “redemption” after she had taken plenty of stick from home supporters throughout the match.

“Khiara was excellent with what she had to do and what she had to go through – particularly at the beginning of the game with the verbals from the crowd,” said Taylor.

“This is like redemption for her. What was going on inside [her head] I don’t know but I think she’s been preparing herself for weeks. She has been telling me that.

“Obviously, people have been hurling abuse [at her] but she handled it really well. Arsenal make it a cauldron. The fans don’t stop and gradually their attentions turned elsewhere, which shows you she was doing something right.

“It’s fantastic for a young player to know that you’re going to make mistakes in the game – and then it’s how you react. Sometimes there are skeletons in the wardrobe. It’s really nice when you flip it the other way.”

‘That’s how ambitious we need to be’

While momentum is building at Manchester City, it has been a damaging week for Arsenal as they fell six points behind league leaders Chelsea with defeat by West Ham, prior to their FA Cup exit.

The Women’s League Cup is now their main hope of silverware as they failed to progress from the qualifying rounds of the Women’s Champions League.

“From a results perspective, we’re really unhappy with it. I don’t think we deserved to lose those two games [against City and West Ham],” said Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall.

“It puts us into a really tough situation in order to achieve what we want to achieve this season. But we need to put our focus on things we can control and that’s what we need to manage.”

Arsenal have won just one trophy in five years.

Former Arsenal defender Anita Asante told BBC Two: “One trophy in five years for a club with the legacy that Arsenal has is definitely not good enough. They took too long to impose themselves in a really important must-win game.”

Asked if it was important to deliver a trophy this season, Eidevall said: “We want to compete in every competition. That’s the ambition otherwise you shouldn’t be in this club or represent this club.

“We want to win both competitions that we’re still in. That’s how ambitious we need to be. We also need to understand it’s a lot of hard work. It’s not entirely in our own control either.”