Nightmare season continues for Arsenal Women as Leah Williamson concedes bizarre penalty against Paris FC image
Arsenal's nightmare start to the 2026/27 season continued unabated as the Gunners collapsed late in bizarre fashion as they settled for a 2-2 draw with Paris FC on Wednesday evening.
Things have all gone wrong for Arsenal early in to the new campaign. After winning their first match of the season against Brighton by a 1-0 score, they have failed to secure victory in any of their subsequent three league matches, leaving them in seventh position, already seven points off the leaders Manchester City.
On the Champions League front, they needed a 93rd-minute penalty from Mariona Caldentey to defeat HB Koge at home in their league phase opener, before today's disappointing draw. It all came down to a truly bizarre moment with Leah Williamson, who was whistled for a penalty in the 87th minute without even realising the ball was in play.
The Sporting News brings you a look at what happened and how the team has responded to the incident.
Leah Williamson concedes bizarre penalty on goal kick
Goals from Alessia Russo and Georgia Stanway bracketing halftime had Arsenal two goals in front and cruising towards a convincing victory over Paris FC on the road Wednesday, in what could have been a momentum-boosting result in the midst of a truly difficult start to the 2026/27 season.
Instead, the match ended in disappointment as a controversial and embarrassing penalty changed the result.
After Paris FC got one back in the 72nd minute through Clara Mateo, the match came down to the wire. With Arsenal seemingly relieving pressure through a goal kick in the 85th minute, Leah Williamson committed a damaging blunder that gave Paris a game-tying penalty, which Maeline Mendy converted to pull level at 2-2.
Arsenal goalkeeper Misa carried the ball from out of play over the end line and into her own six-yard box, whereby she placed it on the ground. Just as the ball stopped rolling, she kicked it over laterally to Williamson. The Arsenal defender did not believe that Misa had intended to begin play with that action, instead thinking that she was to take the goal kick, and subsequently grabbed the ball with her hands to place it on the edge of the six-yard box and restart play herself.
However, Romanian official Juliana Elena Demetrescu instead interpreted the situation as Misa having restarted play herself with the kick, which resulted in a handball offence by Williamson in the penalty area. It was a highly controversial decision, as there was zero pressure on either Arsenal player at all, with Paris FC having completely dropped back into midfield. Referees have leeway in the Laws of the Game to make common sense judgements throughout a match which align with the spirit of the rules, but in this case the referee chose to make a letter-of-the-law decision.
What did Arsenal say about Williamson penalty?
Arsenal assistant coach Aaron D'Antino took the post-match press conference after head coach Renee Slegers was reportedly "too disappointed" to take the stand.
"We didn’t think it was a penalty, we don’t think the goal kick had actually been taken for what we had seen," D'Antino said of the Williamson incident, although he admitted "the learning in that is how we get the ball to Leah, so we don't put ourselves in that position."
"It’s incredibly disappointing, or frustrating I should say," D'Antino said of the draw, "because we felt like for large periods of the game we had good control. They are a counter-attacking team, that is their threat, so we were aware of that. And yes, the first moment we need to [handle is] the first goal, we can defend it better from the first phase."