By Catherine MacKenzie and Gethin Thurlow (16/11/25)
Above: Manchester City celebrate their third goal. Photo: Naomi Baker/WSL Football.
Manchester City secured a comprehensive victory over Manchester United, strengthening their position at the top of the WSL table.
Goals from Rebecca Knaak, Khadija Shaw, and a sublime strike from Lauren Hemp -making her first start since recovering from an ankle injury – secured all three points for City before half-time. United failed to produce a shot on target on an afternoon to forget for the Red Devils.
City’s win extends their lead to four points, although Chelsea are hot on their heels only three points behind. United, now seven points behind, face a challenging turnaround as they prepare to meet Wolfsburg midweek in the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
Heading into the game, City were buoyed by having no European football (and therefore a week between games), and the returns of many of last year’s injuries.
United came into the game with fatigue following their midweek win over PSG – which followed a league loss against Aston Villa.
The action
Andrée Jeglertz made one change to the Manchester City side that beat Everton 2-1 last time out. Lauren Hemp made her first start since recovering from her September injury, replacing Iman Beney, who moved to the bench. With Alex Greenwood absent, Kerstin Casparij wore the captain’s armband.
Manchester United made four changes to the side that beat Paris St. Germain midweek. Safia Middleton-Patel retained her place in goal with Phallon Tullis-Joyce still injured. Ella Toone and Elisabeth Terland returned to the starting lineup, replacing Fridolina Rolfö and Simi Awujo. Gabby George moved to the bench with Dominique Janssen back from suspension, and Leah Galton was preferred to Melvine Malard.
From kickoff, City made their intentions clear. They were putting bodies forward and balls into the box from the outset, with chances arriving minutes into the match, the best of which coming as Lauren Hemp met Aoba Fujino’s cross at the back post, but Jayde Riviere blocked her effort on goal.
Another early chance saw City hit the woodwork: Vivianne Miedema outmuscled Julia Zigiotti on the edge of the box, but her low drive struck the front post and went behind. This was swiftly followed by Hemp setting up Japan international Yui Hasegawa, but her shot was blocked by Anna Sandberg.
United’s first meaningful attack nearly produced the opener when Jayde Riviere broke forward and delivered a low cross toward Leah Galton, but stand-in captain Kerstin Casparij intervened to turn it behind, and the resulting corner came to nothing.
The opener came as Hemp curled a wonderful corner into the back post for Shaw to nod back across, and Rebecca Knaak had the easiest of tasks guiding a header into the top corner.
After conceding, United started to string more passes together and had a flurry of half-chances, none of which ended up on target. The City defensive line held well and forward Elisabeth Terland received almost no service; despite running to be in the right places to receive the ball, that ball rarely came.
It was City who scored the game’s next goal, notching their second through a Casparij cross into Shaw, and their third came minutes later. United tried to build from the back, but they were sloppy and lost possession deep in their own half. That sloppiness was punished ruthlessly as the ball ended up with Hemp on the left wing, who expertly lashed a shot into the top corner.
With City three goals to the good before half-time, it was a long road back for United. The home side understandably eased their press, giving United more time on the ball in dangerous areas. However, the second half proceeded without incident as United failed to register even one shot on target.
Manchester City fan POV: City showed “just how good this team is”
This felt like a massive derby. While it’s a big occasion anyway, recently there always seems to be something extra on the line for Manchester derbies – in the last one, United qualified for the UWCL after getting a point. Today was really about setting narratives for the season. Win today and we would be seven points clear of them, and four points clear at the top of the table.
In terms of the game itself, Lauren Hemp was back in the starting lineup and working her usual magic, skipping past Riviere and putting in two inch-perfect crosses in within five minutes. Her skill, speed and intelligence are so good to watch and when she’s on it there’s no better sight in football.
Bunny Shaw and Kerstin Casperij linking up for a classic full back-striker goal is always fun to see, while Rebecca Knaak scoring in a third Manchester derby quickly moves her towards cult hero status.
After struggling to score and perform overall the last few weeks, I was concerned this game would prove that one that ended the run and halted the momentum that Andrée [Jeglertz, head coach] has built up, but it proved to be the opposite. Smashing our biggest rivals (and a pretty strong defensive team) around like that in one half moves the winning run to eight games and shows just how good this team is.
Chelsea will be relentless all season, and while by no means do I expect the title to be coming North; after a dreadful 24/25 season, Manchester City are back.
Manchester United fan POV: United MUST add to squad in January
A fair number of United fans thought this might happen. The toll of the midweek toil against PSG would always be felt when you have a squad that is light on depth all over the pitch, particularly against a team rejuvenated by the return of a world class player like Lauren Hemp.
There was also the fact that last time out, we beat them to European football; and the time before that, Ella Toone scored a hattrick as we comprehensively beat City at the Etihad.
Head coach Marc Skinner made four changes to the side that won in midweek. Toone and Elisabeth Terland came in from the start, but were under immediate pressure and pinned back in their own half with little room to make an impact. That Toone continued playing despite receiving a heavy knock that left her needing lengthy treatment was concerning and indicative of the need to strengthen.
Skinner alluded to this following the match, talking about the fatigue of a short turnaround: “We won’t use it as an excuse. We had an advantage on City last year in that sense,” he said.
“We have to design a squad and have an impact in the winter transfer window to support the players, who are giving everything. It wasn’t a lack of commitment.
I felt the players gave as much as they could, they just switched off. That can be tiredness and fatigue but we can’t accept that, and we have to fix that.”
Manchester City are away at Nottingham Forest in the Women’s League Cup group stages next Saturday. Their next WSL game is at Leicester on Sunday, 7 December.
Manchester United return to Champions League action when they travel to Wolfsburg on Wednesday, and are back in the WSL against West Ham at home in early December.
TEAMS: MANCHESTER CITY (4-2-3-1): Yamashita, Rose, Shaw, Miedema, Hemp, Ouahabi, Casparij, Blindkilde Brown, Fujino, Hasegawa, Knaak. Substitutes: Keating, Clinton (for Shaw 82′), Coombs, Wienroither, Lohmann (for Blinkilde Brown 74′), Beney (for Hemp 74′), Prior, Thomas, Oldroyd.
Scorers: Knaak 1-0 (26′), Shaw 2-0 (43′), Hemp 3-0 (45+2′)
MANCHESTER UNITED (4-2-3-1): Middleton-Patel, Sandberg, Le Tissier, Toone, Park, Terland, Galton, Riviere, Janssen, Zigiotti, Miyazawa. Substitutes: Rendell, George, Blundell (for Riviere 62′), Malard (for Terland 46′), Rolfö (for Galton 62′), Awujo (for Toone 83′), Naalsund, Williams (for Park 74′), Griffiths.
Attendance: TBC
Referee: Grace Lowe
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