Reiten’s late goal salvages WSL point for Chelsea at nine-player Manchester City

Top-of-the-table clashes can be relied upon to provide scintillating drama. It was an enigmatic start, an enthralling opening 37 minutes for Manchester City, before it all appeared to be derailed by two red cards.

Yet somehow City – who had Alex Greenwood sent off in the 38th minute for time-wasting and Lauren Hemp in the 81st for a foul – clung to their 1-0 lead against a Chelsea side who seemed to lack fight until the 95th minute when Guro Reiten scored to cancel out Chloe Kelly’s early goal.

Related: Manchester City 1-1 Chelsea: Women’s Super League – as it happened

“I think sometimes the officials in their mind think: ‘Well, we need to even this out’ and then all of a sudden, everything you do is a yellow card,” the City manager, Gareth Taylor, said after 11 cards were issued, including Taylor being booked for dissent.

City remain undefeated in 20 Women’s Super League home games, although this will be little consolation for the poor officiating that threatened this record.

Leila Ouahabi was sent off last weekend in the 2-0 win against West Ham and the dismissals of the England duo Greenwood and Hemp took City’s tally to three red cards after two games. It is a statistic that will not please Taylor.

“Three red cards in two games is going to send a message to anyone who has not watched us play that we’re a dirty team,” he said.

“But I think anyone who’s watched us in the last few games will never say that. We are a good, young team that maintain possession of the ball really well. We’re exciting to watch, and we would like to keep all our players on the pitch. So I think if there is consistency, most of the game, we’re going see a lot of that with players getting yellow cards and red cards.”

The result is not a calamity for Chelsea, with a draw unlikely to derail their charge for a fifth consecutive title. But failing to defeat City when everything was in their favour will ring alarm bells for Emma Hayes.

It took only six minutes for Kelly to open the scoring. Mary Fowler danced around the edge of the box before feeding Kelly, who finished expertly. Aided by a deflection off Jess Carter’s outstretched leg, Kelly’s shot just cleared Zecira Musovic’s reach. The goal gave City something to hold on to when their afternoon began to crumble.

Greenwood was booked in the 17th minute for a foul. Twenty minutes later, the referee, Emily Heaslip, showed the captain a second yellow for time-wasting at a free-kick. Kelly, Laia Aleixandri and Jill Roord were subsequently booked for dissent.

“I heard it was 20 seconds between the free-kick being given to us and her making her mind up as to what to do,” Taylor said. “It seemed just a weird time for us to be wasting time.”

The officiating inconsistencies were apparent. A hefty challenge from Ashley Lawrence on Hemp seemed to warrant a yellow for the Canada full-back but no booking was given. Minutes later, Hemp was booked for dissent.

• Download the Guardian app from the iOS App Store on iPhone or the Google Play store on Android by searching for 'The Guardian'.

• If you already have the Guardian app, make sure you’re on the most recent version.

• In the Guardian app, tap the Menu button at the bottom right, then go to Settings (the gear icon), then Notifications.

• Turn on sport notifications.

Hayes, speaking about Lawrence’s challenge, said: “I don’t know, I’m not an official. I didn’t think Ashley [Lawrence] wasn’t yellow. I thought it was late, but who knows what a yellow is nowadays.”

Lauren James nearly levelled for Chelsea when she rattled the crossbar and City’s lead looked even more vulnerable when an innocuous foul on James led to a second yellow for Hemp.

Khiara Keating had retained her starting spot after keeping a clean sheet against West Ham but was denied a second in the sixth minute of added time when a scramble in the box allowed Reiten to slip the ball in at the near post.