This is not the first tough week Gareth Taylor has endured during his five-year reign as Manchester City Women’s manager.

There have been bad results, defeats against rival teams and questions raised as to whether he was the right man to lead this team forward.

To his credit, each time he has come through those challenges. City decided to stick by him when they missed out on Champions League football in the 2022-23 season and they nearly went on to win the title in the subsequent campaign.

But Taylor, who is the longest-serving manager in the Women’s Super League having joined the club in 2020, has never before had a week like the one just passed. After Chloe Kelly’s bombshell claims that City had tried to “assassinate her character” following her deadline-day loan move to Arsenal and that an unnamed individual’s “negative behaviour” had affected her “emotional well-being”, Taylor needed his team to do their talking on the pitch.

Instead, they suffered defeat against Kelly’s new club, which leaves them fourth in the table and trailing in the race for European football.

Kelly, who was ineligible to face her parent club, was not present at the Joie Stadium to watch her new Arsenal team-mates edge a thriller. But the impact of her words are clearly still being felt.

City have been unlucky in that they have seen key players like Alex Greenwood and Lauren Hemp suffer long-term injuries. But this group does not look anything like the side they were at the start of the season.

Just over a month ago, City were the main title challengers to runaway leaders Chelsea. Four defeats in six games means they are now 12 points off top spot. Taylor admitted they are now in a battle for second and third place.

“Of course it’s a blow,” he said. “You don’t want to lose against teams you are competing with for those places but that’s our objective now, to be in the Champions League qualification places at the end of the season.”

The goals City conceded against Arsenal were not dissimilar to the ones they shipped in their 4-2 defeat by Manchester United last month. Arsenal had clearly done their homework and pressed high when goalkeeper Khiara Keating, who had been at fault for at least two goals in the Manchester derby, was passing out from her own box.

It took Arsenal just 44 seconds to sniff out a goal when Mariona Caldentey put Laia Aleixandri under pressure after receiving the ball from Keating, with the forward robbing the defender of possession before finishing expertly into the bottom corner.

Keating was then caught out when Arsenal doubled their lead in the eighth minute, the goalkeeper failing to collect a delivery from Kyra Cooney-Cross, which Lotte Wubben-Moy headed into the back of the net.

Taylor was strong in his defence of Keating, who struggled for game time at the start of the season. Summer signing Ayaka Yamashita was seemingly the No 1 choice before Keating reclaimed her place.

“You guys have to be careful because you call for one, then you’re on about the other,” Taylor said when pressed on his goalkeeper selection. “At the start of the season it’s like, ‘What’s happening with Khiara Keating?’

“If you want to blame someone, then blame me. I pick the team and I back my players all the time. If that looks like me pushing back on questions, then I will do.”

City did fight their way back into the game after their horror start, with Mary Fowler pulling a goal back midway through the half before Vivianne Miedema levelled against her former side shortly after the break.

In a game that had as many twists as Kelly’s transfer saga, Frida Maanum restored Arsenal’s lead a minute after Miedema’s equaliser before Fowler then converted a controversial penalty. Replays showed Aoba Fujino had been a yard outside the box when she was fouled by Steph Catley, but referee Cheryl Foster pointed to the spot.

Arsenal were undeterred and found the winning goal when Stina Blackstenius finished off a fine team move.

The result puts Taylor under extra pressure after what was a nightmare week. It will only get worse if Arsenal and Kelly end up beating City to a place in Europe.