Manchester City Women to Host Arsenal on Opening Day

Manchester City Women will start their 2022/23 campaign by welcoming Arsenal to the Academy Stadium. Gareth Taylor’s new look blues will play host to last season’s runners up on 11^th September as City aim to get their season off to a winning start. The girls also face a trip to Champions Chelsea at the end of the month, with a visit to Aston Villa sandwiched in between.

But before the Arsenal match, City face off against WFC Tomiris-Turan in the Champions League qualifying round, which will be played in Madrid on August 18^th.

October sees the blues welcome both Leicester and promoted Liverpool to Manchester, and visit Spurs in the middle. City start 2023 with a trip to West Ham, and welcome Chelsea to the Academy Stadium at the end of March, before travelling to Arsenal in the following match.

After that, the blues have three home and two away games, which they will be hoping will form part of the title run-in. West Ham and Reading both visit Manchester towards the end of April, but successive away games at Liverpool and United will be a serious test of City’s title credentials.

The blues finish the season at home to Everton, where new signing Sandy MacIver will be hoping to lift the WSL trophy against her former club.

Derby Days

City host United in the first league derby of the season on 11^th December in the final league match of the year, and make the return trip in May, which is the blues penultimate league game of the season.

The blues faced United four times last season, with the first derby ending 2-2 after Georgia Stanway was sent off. United then won a League Cup group match at home to the blues, before Caroline Weir scored another stunner to claim the three points at the Academy Stadium. City then hammered the reds 4-1 on their own patch, and it could have been five, if Julie Blackstad’s late goal had stood.

Blues Must Beat Chelsea and Arsenal

City struggled in the first half of last season, but came good in the new year. That said, City still failed to beat their two closest rivals in the league. They lost 5-0 at Arsenal and 4-0 at home to Chelsea, and in the return matches, the Gunners snatched a point with a late equaliser at the Academy Stadium, and the blues narrowly lost at Kingsmeadow, a Guro Reiten goal being the difference between the two sides.

It is expected that these two teams will be challenging again, and City need to win points against both of these if they are to stand any chance of taking the WSL title. And, with United again looking strong, City will have extra competition to fight off if they are to add a second league title to their honours list.