Manchester United kept their ninth clean sheet of the season on Sunday night, beating Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 to maintain their position in second place. You would have been hard-pressed to find a game more different than the rollercoaster that had started the Women’s Super League day — a 4-3 thriller between Arsenal and Manchester City, with the London side coming out on top.

United’s win, settled by an Elisabeth Terland goal, was not a classic with only two shots on target for each team. Manager Marc Skinner has often referred to the ‘Manchester United way’ as being a team that wants to go and attack, but their success this season has been predicated largely on defensive solidity.

“From our perspective, it’s making sure that you start with solid foundations,” Skinner explained in his post-match press conference after the win over Spurs. “It doesn’t mean you have to be defensive.

“We decided at the turn of the year that, in some parts of the first part of the year, we were a little passive in the way we defended. We decided actually that that’s not a Manchester United team and we need to be aggressive.

“We’ve got energy, we’ve got commitment, we’ve got youth, and that then bleeds into this type of performance. I felt even the youngsters like Maya (Le Tissier) tonight were really maturing, especially in the end part of the game, and not making it a drama late on, and that’s probably where we’ve grown.

“Those factors, when you’re not at your best attacking, still keep you in balance in the game. In a game where we’re moving way more towards finishing and scoring and goals, actually there’s still an art to defending and that can still be beautiful.”

In comparison, the defending at the Joie Stadium in Manchester was beautiful.

Manchester City were caught out in ways that have become troublingly familiar over the past few weeks, with Mariona Caldentey’s press on Laia Aleixandri allowing Arsenal to turn the ball over and score within two minutes. An inability to defend from dead-ball situations allowed them to double that lead by the eight-minute mark as Lotte Wubben-Moy headed in from Kyra Cooney-Cross’ free kick with City goalkeeper Khiara Keating in no man’s land.

Despite pulling the match back to 3-3, City continued to gift Arsenal good chances and Stina Blackstenius, the woman who destroyed City’s title hopes last year, did eventually put one of them away to secure three points. Gareth Taylor admitted in his post-match press conference that his team are “shipping goals”.

”(Defending) is something we pride ourselves on,” he explained. “We can’t deny that Alex (Greenwood) is not there and assimilating with that is really difficult. Rebecca (Knaak, who was signed in January) has done well but it’s a big job for her and a big step up.

“We’ve not been able to refresh the back line at all, so those guys are consistently playing, which in some senses is good because that then brings the cohesion between them, but we need to improve and get better in all of those situations.”

The reality was that this match between Arsenal and City was an entertaining sideshow for a Champions League spot given how far advanced Chelsea’s position at the top of the table is, with the league leaders able to give a debut to Keira Walsh in a laboured win over Aston Villa.

Skinner, whose side are currently closest to challenging the WSL champions, insisted that Chelsea’s spending — they dropped a cool £1.3million ($1.6m) on Walsh and centre-back Naomi Girma in January — does not concern him.

“I don’t want anybody to limit spending right now,” he said after his own team’s game. “It’s still a growing market so there’s a balance there. Would I like us to be able to do that? Of course, but we also have to have our own identity which is to grow young, keep pushing and keep developing people.

“What I’ve liked about the WSL this season is I feel the teams you are playing against give a lot more discomfort as a coach, because you’ve got to prepare a lot. There’s a lot of quality in the teams, so I’m hoping that it’s not a gimme every time you play Chelsea. Actually, you can go toe to toe and somebody else can take points off them.”

It was undeniable that Chelsea had to work hard to get their win against Villa, who were being coached for the first time by Natalia Arroyo.

Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor admitted after the match that she had not wanted to bring Walsh on for her debut, but felt forced to do so with the score at 0-0. In the end, a cross from Mayra Ramirez was turned into her own net by Villa full-back Sarah Mayling as she tried to defend Maika Hamano’s run.

“It has not been a normal week for Keira,” said Bompastor. “She only practised on Saturday with us.

”You know her quality. She has a lot of experience and brings a lot of confidence to the team. We could see that on the pitch OK, even if the initial plan was not to have her coming in just because of everything that’s happened this week.

”But sometimes when you need to get a result, you need players like her who are able to come in and make an impact. I’m really happy to have her and she’s happy to be with us. It’ll be a good addition to the squad.”

There had been questions about the necessity of Chelsea acquiring another player given their strong lead at the top of the WSL, but Walsh’s cameo demonstrated exactly why they had been so desperate to bring her in. Without a ball-playing central midfielder since Sophie Ingle’s ACL injury in pre-season, and in truth without an elite option in that role for a number of years, Walsh has the potential to entirely change the way Chelsea build up in possession.

Ramirez’s own introduction to the game was equally important with Bompastor saying after the match that she got her starting XI wrong, but even in just 15 minutes you could see why Chelsea worked so hard to get Walsh over the line on deadline day.

She may have been a signing with the Champions League in mind, but that doesn’t mean she won’t have her say domestically, too. The eventual win means they remain seven points clear of United in second, with a 10-point gap to Arsenal and a 12-point advantage over City.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, UK Women's Football

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