Aston Villa 2-4 Man City: ‘Vivianne Miedema still capable of the exceptional’
Miedema herself admitted that she is still searching for her best form after suffering an ACL injury in December 2022. She has only played 16 club games for Arsenal and Manchester City since joining them last summer.
Miedema said winter training camps in Saudi Arabia have proven helpful.
“For me, I just wanted to take responsibility and get us back on top again and I’m delighted to be able to do that today,” she told Sky Sports after being named player of the match against Villa.
“During the training camp in Riyadh we took a lot of shots and today I felt really good. For the second goal I had a scan and knew there was someone behind me but I was in a good position to take the shot.
“I’m actually just happy to be back out there and I’m getting all the little wins. Probably before all this (ACL injury) happened, I was feeling sharp. I gave myself time to come back properly and I hope we Can see benefits for the rest of the season.
“Coming through the rehab, I’m feeling strong, feeling good, and I feel like I did the right things this time. Hopefully I can continue to get more minutes and get back to the level I’m at.”
To say Manchester City is back is a stretch. It’s great to avoid three consecutive defeats for the first time since October 2021, but they remain six points off the top of the table and have games against the top three teams on the horizon.
Former England defender Vern Whelan told BBC 5 Sports Extra: “What we’re seeing is Manchester City are slowly getting back into shape. The only issue is they need to improve defensively. There are still question marks there and they still have a game against Arsenal Chelsea will come too.”
The injuries to Manchester City and Taylor have not stopped yet. Kelly was added to the squad after Laura Coombs had to be withdrawn from the starting line-up after a thigh injury aggravated during the warm-up at Villa Park.
But with Shaw and especially Miedema back, Taylor has reason to be happy after his 100th WSL game in charge of City.
“We still have to watch out for Khadija. Today we have a strict limit of 15 minutes and no more,” he said. “Same with Viv. We extended her training to 90 minutes.
“Getting two people on the court at the same time is the next task.”
