Both teams knew this was surely a “win or bust” moment for their already-fading title hopes and, in that spirit, they served up a breathless seven-goal thriller. It was the visitors, Arsenal, who came out on top to surely confine the remainder of Manchester City’s Women’s Super League campaign to merely a battle for European qualification. City’s fourth defeat in their past six WSL games was another engrossing but mistake-filled contest that will be hugely damaging for their hopes of domestic success this term. On the overall share of the chances, Arsenal probably deserved to edge this end-to-end contest.

The errors were littered across almost every big moment in the match, and began inside the first minute, when Laia Aleixandri was dispossessed while trying to control a short pass out from Khiara Keating and Mariona Caldentey put Arsenal in front, to the exasperation of the home supporters. Arsenal were 2-0 up just seven minutes later, when Keating attempted to punch clear Kyra Cooney-Cross’ free-kick but was beaten to the ball in the air by Lotte Wubben-Moy, who headed in.

Gareth Taylor’s team were the stronger for the remainder of the first half, though, and halved the deficit when Mary Fowler nodded in Aoba Fujino’s right-wing cross, which perhaps the Arsenal goalkeeper, Daphne van Domselaar, will feel she could have done better with. The mistakes from both teams continued after half-time, with Caldentey gifting away possession on the edge of her own penalty area to allow the former Arsenal forward, Vivianne Miedema, to slot in her fifth goal in her past four appearances in all competitions.

It was also the second time this season that Miedema had scored against her old club, since her summer switch from north London to the east side of Manchester, where Sunday’s drama was still only just getting started. A minute later, Arsenal went 3-2 up as they sliced through the hosts’ defence like a knife through butter to see Frida Maanum score in front of their travelling fans. The next mistake to lead to a goal appeared to come from the officials, as a penalty was awarded for a foul on Fujino by Steph Catley that appeared to have occurred just outside the box, rather than inside it. Fowler did not care and dutifully dispatched the equaliser from the spot. More momentary lapses would follow, with Keating running 30 yards out of her goal to try and intercept a long pass but timing it badly, allowing Stina Blackstenius to go around the goalkeeper and surely score – but the Sweden striker had run too wide and was too hesitant.

Sign up to Moving the Goalposts. No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women’s football. after newsletter promotion. The game’s seventh and eventual winning goal was more down to two acts of quality rather than any further blunders, with Caldentey’s super crossfield pass finding Beth Mead in space and the England winger rolling in a perfectly-placed low cross for Blackstenius to tuck in the winner and leave Manchester City in fourth spot, nine points behind the leaders Chelsea, who have a game in hand.