London City manager Jocelyn Precheur has said he is optimistic her side can close the gap on Arsenal in time despite losing 4-1 in their debut Women's Super League (WSL) fixture.

It was a productive opening 20 minutes for the WSL debutants, with opposition manager Renee Slegers admitting they were "really hard to play against."

But after taking an early lead through a penalty from Kosovare Asllani , they were unable to absorb the pressure and allowed Arsenal to show their quality in a 4-1 victory.

"Obviously I'm disappointed at this moment and even more when I see how we started this game," Precheur said afterwards.

"I really liked the first 20 minutes of the first half. The organisation was good. The intensity increased. It started to become harder for us.

"We played Arsenal,

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