Manchester City women beat Arsenal 4-2 in WSL amid financial appeal

Manchester City may be a club in turmoil but Mary Fowler and her teammates have helped offer the beleaguered outfit a hint of a smile as England's women's champions continue their dominating start in the Women's Super League.

On Sunday (Monday AEST), Fowler came on as a second-half substitute and helped provide some spark as champions City went on to hammer one of their biggest rivals, Arsenal, 4-2 at home.

City stays perfect after five matches and still leads the WSL table by two points from Chelsea.

But it is proving a tough time for Arsenal and their three Australian European champion players from 2025 as the Gunners slipped 10 points off the pace in lowly 10th position.

Lauren Hemp scored twice for City as they twice came from behind to prevail, with the real spark coming when Fowler — making her 100th appearance for the club — was introduced just after the hour mark.

Fowler was joined on the park by Kerstin Casparij and Iman Beney with the home side trailing 2-1.

Within a minute, Casparij had equalised before Hemp put them in front for the first time nine minutes later and the league's top striker, Bunny Shaw, made it four with her fifth goal of the season.

The dominance in the WSL has been a bright spot for City, which has filed an appeal against an independent commission ruling that found the club guilty of serious breaches of the Premier League's financial rules.

The EPL said last week that City had used "sham" commercial contracts as part of schemes to inflate revenue and understate costs by more than 900 million pounds ($1.71 billion) over nearly a decade.

For Arsenal, without a win since the opening day of the season, it was a second-straight defeat after losing 1-0 away to Chelsea last week.

It is a difficult time for the Aussie international trio at Arsenal, with Kyra Cooney-Cross just returning to the team on her soccer comeback, Steph Catley having been struggling with injury and Caitlin Foord yet to score this season while being played mainly as a substitute.

It was Foord's foraging in the box that forced the mistake which gifted Arsenal's second goal to Alessia Russo.

Yet the Gunners could have no complaints about slipping further adrift as, elsewhere, Chelsea, driven along by Ellie Carpenter in her more attacking vein this season, defeated West Ham 3-0.

Melvine Malard, Keira Walsh and Maika Hamano all scored for the Blues.

It came on a day when London City Lionesses, without the injured Alanna Kennedy — who will miss the Matildas' upcoming internationals against Germany and Haiti — handed out a 6-1 thrashing to Tottenham Hotspur, including a double for Spanish great Alexia Putellas.

London is now third on 12 points, but Emily van Egmond could do nothing to help Charlton avoid a 5-1 hammering at Brighton as they sought in vain to earn their first point since promotion.