Analysis: Chaos takes spotlight ahead of intriguing tactical battle
Two red cards for Manchester City spoiled what was shaping up to be an interesting match up in the middle of the park against the defending champions...
You can sit and prepare and look at tactics and how a big game may pan out, and sometimes a referee simply has other ideas! This was one of those occasions as Manchester City and Chelsea renewed their decade-long Barclays Women's Super League battle at the Joie Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
It's one place Chelsea really don't like and their 1-1 draw extended their run of league wins at Man City to just one in eleven. In the end, both sides may have been grateful for the point given how the match panned out, yet both will likely walk away knowing it could have been more.
Both sides made changes, the visitors more so. Ashley Lawrence came in at right-back, Erin Cuthbert sat deep in the midfield alongside Sophie Ingle, while Jessie Fleming came into the number 10 role, a somewhat more defensive minded player potentially with Emma Hayes looking at how open that area of the pitch was against Tottenham last week.
Gareth Taylor too made a midfield tweak with Filippa Angeldahl in for Deyna Castellanos, while there was an enforced one at the back with Esme Morgan replacing the suspended Leila Ouahabi.
Chelsea's midfield though was again too slow and too cubersome early on against the energetic City. Hayes lamented her side's slow start after the game, while Taylor pointed to the fact it's now other teams going through a summer of transition, while he has added only Jill Roord to the squad from the end of the last campaign.
City had the better of the midfield battle early on, with the front three of Chloe Kelly, Lauren Hemp and Mary Fowler lively once again. It was Kelly who opened the scoring in style, albeit her effort from range took a crucial enough deflection to take it up and over Zecira Musovic.
From there on, chaos ensued. It was a shame really the remainder of the hour was dominated by referee Emily Heaslip, because with City in front and on top against the champions and the visitors just about starting to get a foothold in the game, it was spoiled by Alex Greenwood's second yellow card, and what followed.
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I intend to reflect more on this in a separate piece, but I didn't feel Greenwood was time-wasting, and it felt again like a referee following her new directives, but not understanding it's not as simple as always time-wasting as Greenwood looked for options from a free-kick, which she'd just taken before Heaslip stepped in.
It forced Taylor into an unnecessary change as Hemp went to left-back, before at half-time Fowler had to be replaced by Kerstin Casparij and City looked to a back three, with the Netherlands international and Hemp as wing-backs.
Predominantly, it worked, and after Mia Fishel endured a quiet half, replacement Sam Kerr also did, albeit the Australian was coming into her first game of the season, but both were more isolated than Hayes would have liked against 10 players.
None of Hayes' changes really changed their shape, with Jelena Cankovic also on in a straight swap with Ingle, before Melanie Leupolz replaced Cuthbert and Fran Kirby took the ten spot off Fleming and Eve Perisset went in at right-back in place of Lawrence.
City had few options, and even less when Hemp was shown a second yellow. Her first, for protesting a corner, seemed soft even under the new directives, and she'd have been frustrated to see a second yellow for a foul not long after she herself had been wiped out by Lawrence, with no booking for the Canadian.
In all, there were 12 yellow cards shown, two of them second yellows for Greenwood and Hemp, and as Taylor pointed out post-match there wasn't a malicious tackle in the match. Aleixandri, Kelly and Roord were all booked for protests at decisions, as was Taylor himself, while the early trip from Lauren James which warranted her a booking was nowhere near the worst of the match.
At that point, tactics were somewhat out of the window for both. City went into a 5-3-1 with Kelly running her socks off up front, and replaced by the returning Khadija Shaw who made several lung-busting runs up the field and provided a crucial outlet for her team as they got penned in more and more.
As so often occurs for club and country nowadays, Millie Bright went up front with Kerr to cause some chaos late on. To rub salt into Taylor's wounds, Chelsea's late equaliser came with his side down another player after Alanna Kennedy went off after receiving treatment.
Crucially, this came as Chelsea had a corner, and City had one of their tallest players off the pitch, and said corner was subsequently turned home by Guro Reiten from close range. As City fatigued, Kerr hit the post with a looping header, while young Khiara Keating calmly claimed everything she could in goal.
City will rightfully believe with a referee less card happy they'd have pulled off a huge early season win, while Hayes will lament her side's ponderous performance against 11, 10 or 9. The nature of the game shouldn't hide away the fact Chelsea had some lingering issues from last week, particularly in the midfield, with Hayes not yet finding a balance in there.
The hosts and Taylor will take positives because early on they were well on top and appear to be showing the potential people believe they hold within their squad. Nothing can be judged too much this early in the season, particularly with how the game panned out, but both will be both pleased and frustrated in equal measures.