Arsenal 4-0 Bristol City: How it happened

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WHAT HAPPENED

Vivianne Miedema hit her third hat-trick of the season on Thursday night as we ran out comfortable 4-0 winners over Bristol City at Meadow Park.

Katie McCabe also put her name on the scoresheet, while Danielle Carter and Jessica Samuelsson made their return from injury.

Based on her own lofty standards, Miedema came into this fixture off the back of a goal drought, having failed to score in any of her last three Arsenal appearances.

But there was no sign that she was lacking confidence when she broke the deadlock in the 11th minute, fighting her way through a crowd of bodies inside the area before finding the bottom right corner from a tight angle.

The whole squad were instantly lifted by the early goal - and we went on to dominate the remainder of the first half, displaying some fine free-flowing football.

Kim Little and Danielle van de Donk failed to convert golden chances from inside the six-yard area, before the latter’s poked effort was impressively cleared off the line by Gemma Evans.

Following the break, though, we came close to ruing our wasted opportunities when Abi Harrison forced Pauline Peyraud-Magnin into a fine diving stop.

This sparked us back into life and we went double Dutch on the hour mark. Dominique Bloodworth played a probing pass behind the visitors’ defence and Miedema was there once more to coolly slot past Sophie Baggaley.

Shortly after McCabe made it three with a low strike in 76th minute, before Miedema latched onto a Lisa Evans delivery to complete her hat-trick with a first-time finish.

It was a dominant performance from start to finish - and with less than two minutes remaining on the clock, Carter came close to a dream return when she rattled the crossbar with a thumping strike from 25 yards.