Arsenal eased past the Championship side London City Lionesses and into the quarter-finals of the FA Cup with a 2-0 win at a bitterly cold Meadow Park on Sunday, but as a barometer of the visitors’ progress it was a far more interesting match.

The Gunners dominated, motivated by their failure to reach the League Cup final in midweek and the 10-point gap between them and the Women’s Super League leaders, Chelsea. But London City are a rapidly developing beast with WSL ambitions and big money behind them via the ownership of the American businesswoman Michele Kang, whose heels further pockmarked the pitch post-match as she congratulated her players for their strong performance and chatted with staff.

The south London club had an unorthodox start to life. A year after Millwall Lionesses narrowly avoided bankruptcy in 2018, the board announced it was splitting from the parent club Millwall to become an independent women’s side.

Related: London City Lionesses’ owner Michele Kang: ‘This is a serious investment’

The last-gasp investment that had salvaged their 2017-18 season came from the blockchain entrepreneur Anthony Culligan and his wife Diane, who was chair of the women’s club. Four years later the club entered its next phase, joining Kang’s growing women’s football club portfolio in December 2023.

Kang, already the owner of the NWSL side Washington Spirit and the eight-time Champions League winners Lyon, told the Guardian in August that her purchase of London City was part of her “mission to prove that women’s sports is good business”.

In addition to the investment in her football clubs, she has provided a $50m (£40.3m) investment in the Kynisca Innovation Hub, a nonprofit organisation she founded dedicated to improving the health of female athletes, pledged a $30m five-year donation to US Soccer for the development of women’s and girls’ football, and committed $4m to the USA women’s rugby sevens team after watching them win bronze at the Paris Olympics.

At London City there has been a steady overhaul of facilities, personnel and players since Kang took charge. At a slick press conference in central London in June 2024, the former Paris Saint-Germain Women head coach Jocelyn Prêcheur was unveiled as the new, the experienced Sweden international Kosovare Asllani was revealed as having signed from Milan, the relocation of the team’s home ground to Bromley’s Hayes Lane stadium was announced and the purchase of a 23-acre training facility in Kent was confirmed.

Asllani has been joined by her compatriots Sofia Jakobsson and Julia Roddar (who went closest for the visitors at Meadow Park, curling an effort narrowly wide of the far post in the first half), and the five-time Champions League winner Saki Kumagai. These players are not acquisitions for the long term, ranging between 32 and 35 in age, but they are helping shift the club from last season’s eighth place to challenging for the title and the sole promotion spot to the WSL.

Against Arsenal, London City showed signs they would be capable of competing if or when they do get there, Laia Codina’s first-half header and Stina Blackstenius’s late strike the difference in a game that was far from easy for the home team. The margin could have been narrower, a lapse in concentration with just under 10 minutes remaining leading to the second goal, the former WSL regular Georgia Brougham robbed by Blackstenius as London City looked to play out from the back in the buildup to the goal.

London City increasingly look as if they are building a setup capable of competing with WSL clubs on the pitch and from a financial point of view, but they need bums on seats if they are to give Kang a return on her investment in the medium to long term.

Without affiliation to a men’s team and the fanbase which comes with that, or a rich history as an independent side, building a fanbase is no mean feat.

Kang was interested in the club because it was independent, making the deal to buy it more straightforward, but also said: “The fact that the name is London City, that’s huge in my opinion, and in the London City area there’s really no football presence there so it’s really right for us to go in and take that as the future.” Except, building an identity as a team for London, in a city known for its localised loyalties will be difficult.

Primarily, football clubs have been born organically, formed by factory workers or set up by fans. For London City to be successful they need to show a completely different way of doing things can work: that pumping in money providing success and results on the pitch can attract fan interest, commitment and loyalty. That is a big ask.