“Nothing has changed, and yet everything is different,” the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre wrote in his 1938 philosophical novel Nausea, as if consulting a crystal ball to predict a 67th-minute update on the Women’s Super League’s 14th Manchester derby on Sunday. After all, if there is a player of the kind of inevitability that inspires futility — what is the point in the face of City’s foregone conclusion — it is Khadija “Bunny” Shaw.
In any circumstance, Shaw remains the safest bet. Goal 91 from 100 WSL appearances, Shaw muscled free of United defender Dominique Janssen, finishing her run a few passes later when firing beyond goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce into the bottom right corner. It was exactly the kind of outcome you could have predicted at any point since Shaw extended her contract in the summer.
Except in the first half, when Shaw and City looked uncharacteristically rattled by a United far removed from the crisis-laden team that shipped five against Chelsea in September. Few back then would have expected United to take a late point against City, let alone in a game where they had enough chances to collect three. An 88th-minute leveller from Elisabeth Terland was an appropriately symbolic point of contrast to players who had looked so defeated long before then against Sonia Bompastor’s Chelsea.
This has been some transformation in six weeks, and against the perfect team to demonstrate it all. City had averaged three WSL goals a game this term, but the champions would finish the weekend with their 100 per cent record broken and second on goal difference, behind Chelsea.
“What I want to transmit to the team is: the hard work, the pressing, is so important, but we are a team that can score goals and play nice football, too, against big teams,” the Manchester United manager Eva Olid said after the game. “Probably at the beginning, the confidence was low. Now, we are growing in confidence. Today we showed that we can have the possession, we can create chances and we can deserve (to) win against one of the best teams in the league.
“That’s been one of our best performances in terms of fight, hard work, how we were pressing. Sometimes it was difficult, but how we play with the ball, how this team built in confidence from day one to now — the progression has been massive.”
Olid added that United looked most threatening in the moments when she could most clearly see her high-possession, incisive style of which so much has been made. “Sometimes we were forcing but when we were playing with calmness is when we were creating,” she said. “There were moments that I could see how we want to play, but it’s a process and we need to keep working to create more chances to have still more of the ball.”
By every measure, United looked far more comfortable: playing out the back, packing central areas, receiving the ball under pressure, combining swiftly in small spaces. They looked fine in a high press and fine in a low block. They took such good care of Shaw that she didn’t have a decent shot until the second half. Their high defensive line backed themselves to win the race against Shaw. Right-back Hanna Lundkvist was disciplined in marshalling Lauren Hemp. It almost seems death-defying to see any defender dare to pass back to their goalkeeper when Shaw is right there, but Maya Le Tissier and Tullis-Joyce looked comfortable.
There were some neat exchanges between Terland, Julia Zigiotti, Ella Toone and Jess Park. Park’s neat footwork and short passes looked like a natural fit for the system. Toone’s driving runs were dangerous and United could have scored earlier had they made the most of them, just as they could have had Park not flicked the ball just over after tricky work inside the box.
“In possession, we controlled the game more than them,” Olid said. “They were more counter-attacking, playing balls in the space, and we were hurting them playing from the back, in trying to be ourselves.”
The only drawback, she acknowledged, was that United didn’t finish their chances. Shaw, booed by United fans partly because of her battle with United captain Le Tissier and partly because everyone knows just how dangerous she can be, embodied the difference. Olid said United knew Shaw “can be frustrated if she’s not having the ball as she normally has” and planned to make her “feel the pressing” that Olid suspects she “doesn’t like”.
United handled her as well as they could, even if Shaw could justifiably have asked referee Kirsty Dowle for more protection. That she broke the deadlock is a testament to the player she is, and it makes it all the more baffling that City let the will-she-won’t-she contract saga run on for as long as they did.
They broke their wage structure to keep her, and that’s where the wider gulf between United and City lies: the different constraints both women’s teams are competing under. Amid Manchester United’s wider woes, Jim Ratcliffe’s indifference to the women’s team remains staggering. Are they not desperate for good PR right now? Look at what Olid can do in six weeks. Imagine what more she could do.
City would have learned a rough lesson had they not pulled out the stops to keep Shaw. Without her, United would have had their first WSL win over City since January 2025. Their next meeting will be watched with interest.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Manchester United WFC, Manchester City WFC, Women's Soccer, Women's Super League
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