Arsenal Women v Man City Women match preview

Man City Women will travel to the home of Sheffield United on Saturday, where they’ll take on Arsenal Women for the Continental Cup trophy.

The two teams have played each other seven times previously, with Arsenal five times winners of the competition and Man City two time recipients, the first history making win courtesy of that Izzy Christiansen goal at Adams Park in 2014; with this occasion the eighth meeting between the two, the third time in four seasons they’ve met in the final and the second year in a row.

The Gunners route to the final has been an easy one with the London club winning all of their games in the competition from group stage to the semi-final, recording wins over West Ham, Lewes FC, Charlton Athletic, coming from behind to beat Millwall Lionesses and Birmingham City respectively; beating Manchester United 2-1 in the semi.

Arsenal’s top scorer for the competition is not surprisingly Vivianne Miedema, who has netted nine goals: a hat trick against Lewes, two against Charlton, one against Millwall and Birmingham, as well as the two she scored against United to send her team to the final.

Not far behind her is Katie McCabe who has scored five times, twice against West Ham and Charlton; once against Lewes. Captain Kim Little also recorded a hat trick against Lewes with Beth Mead and Danielle van de Donk scoring twice between them and finally Lisa Evans, Leah Williamson and Ruby Grant once; the latter’s being her first goal for the Gunners.

Goalkeepers Sari van Veenendaal and Pauline Peyraud-Magnin have kept a total of two clean sheets between them throughout the group stages; Peyraud-Magnin against Lewes and van Veenendaal against Charlton.

City have also won all of their games, through the group and latter stages, recording wins over Birmingham City (on penalties), Leicester City, Bristol City, Sheffield United, Aston Villa, Brighton and Hove Albion in the quarter final and Chelsea in the semi-final at Kingsmeadow.

The Blues own top goal-scorer is Janine Beckie, the Canadian netting six goals in three games with her first City goal and following hattrick coming against Sheffield United and the remaining two against Aston Villa and Brighton. No one has managed to catch her but Nikita Parris and Lauren Hemp have both scored three goals each, with Tessa Wullaert, Nadia Nadim, Jess Park, Georgia Stanway and Caroline Weir netting two and Gemma Bonner and Claire Emslie one each.

Karen Bardsley, Ellie Roebuck and Fran Stenson have kept five clean sheets throughout the competition, Bardsley keeping three and the two younger goalkeepers one each.

Kick off at Bramall Lane is at 12:15 and will be broadcast on BT Sport 1 if you can’t make the game.