Manchester City manager Gareth Taylor insisted that his team is aiming to be crowned WSL champions this season, rather than solely settle for Champions League qualification.

City go into the WSL’s winter break three points adrift of the top three after being held by Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday and have already dropped points in three of their nine games so far after consecutive defeats at the start of the campaign.

But Taylor suggested after the final whistle at the Etihad, where Laura Coombs’ equaliser secured City a point after Leah Galton had given United the lead, that his team have put themselves in a good position to challenge for the title nonetheless.

“We want to win the league. We’re not just looking at the Champions League,” he said. “We’ve put ourselves in a position to win the league. If we win all of our games in the second half of the season, we win the league, it’s as simple as that. We’ve shown that we can go on winning streaks.”

It is a tall order indeed to put together 13 consecutive wins after Christmas, but Taylor pointed to the fact that City still have four more remaining games against the three clubs currently above them.

“We’ve given ourselves a chance in the second half of the season. We’ll play United again, Arsenal twice and Chelsea again. Those games are going to be big,” the boss explained.

Overall, Taylor said that City are in a much better place than at the start of the campaign, having seen considerable player turnover during the summer.

“One of the most important things, for me, is that in our recruitment, we look like this is going to be our team, more or less. As soon as you feel you have a really good team here for the future, which I feel we have now, it’s really exciting,” he said.

“You can see that this team is starting to gel and play really well together. It looks a strong group of players and a good one to work with.”