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Bill Shankly famously said that “some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.” But in a year in which a global pandemic has halted and contextualised sport, we have been reminded time and time again that, in reality, football doesn’t matter.
However, in an icy-cold Academy Stadium, in a critical tie between second-placed Arsenal and fourth-placed Manchester City, the importance of the result, a late 2-1 win to City, felt a world away, but the importance of football more broadly and the role it can play could be felt as strongly as ever.
In the build-up to this fixture the Arsenal centre-back Jen Beattie had spoken publicly for the first time about her breast cancer diagnosis in October. Having received the news on the evening of Thursday 8 October, she played and scored against Brighton the following Sunday, and the team poignantly engulfed her.
With her family in Scotland and the pandemic raging, it was her football family that stepped in. She told the BBC that the “celebration of that goal [summed] up the whole experience and how the girls have reacted to the whole thing.’
Here, in Manchester, with many TV viewers having watched her talk about her journey on the BBC’s Football Focus, the 29-year-old was again embraced, this time by both sides, who warmed up in shirts with her name and number on the back.
It was even more fitting given the Scottish defender, who is having radiotherapy, had spent four years with the home side before rejoining Arsenal in 2019.
On the pitch, Beattie’s side have struggled against those around them at the top this term, suffering cup defeats by City and Chelsea and a first league defeat by the leaders Manchester United last month.
That was followed by a bruising freak own-goal from Lotte Wubben-Moy to
deny them a 1-0 home win against Chelsea. However if Arsenal have been rattled by their record against the biggest sides in England, they are not showing it. Against Chelsea, perhaps buoyed by an animated and vocal coach in Joe Montemurro on the touchline, the Gunners harried and pressed and dominated the game.
In Manchester, their pressing game began in earnest again and it was instantly successful. A poor pass from England full back Lucy Bronze put Keira Walsh under pressure and her touch played the ball straight to the feet of the WSL’s record goalscorer Vivianne Miedema who, with pinpoint accuracy, slotted the ball low into the corner from the edge of the box.
It was the Dutch forward’s third goal in four games against City and her 11th
WSL goal this season. The Arsenal press seemed to tire a little too quickly though, despite their fresher legs, with City having played a testing 2-1 win in Goteborg in the Champions League midweek.
City regained their composure and grew into the game, with US World Cup winner Sam Mewis and winger Chloe Kelly at the heart of their best play.
On the half-hour mark they grabbed the equaliser. A Caroline Weir corner
floated into the box and Beattie got in the way of goalkeeper Lydia Williams, preventing her from punching clear and allowing Mewis to send a looping header over the jumping Miedema on the line.
The fact that none of the previous 13 WSL games between these two sides had ended in draw was perhaps an ominous sign, though and in the fourth minute of added time Weir struck from 20 yards to give City a victory that has clawed them to within a point of Arsenal, who have now dropped to third.
It was a cruel blow for Arsenal but on a day when Beattie’s story mattered
most, who cares?
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