If ever there was an advert for the quality of the Women’s Super League, this was it. In a gut-busting end-to-end encounter between league leaders Manchester City and an unbeaten Chelsea, in which Georgia Stanway scored the league’s 2,000th goal and had a penalty saved, every ounce of fight was expended by the players on the Academy stadium pitch.

Goals pounded in one after the other with the pace of heavyweight fists and a draw, a deserved sharing of the spoils, was the right result.

“It was a game played with emotions,” Emma Hayes said. “Man City desperate to win the game at home, us desperate to prove ourselves. It was a basketball match rather than a chess match.”

Victory would have handed either side the advantage in a tight title race, instead the draw means City remain top, one point clear of Chelsea, who have a game in hand, while Arsenal are a further three points adrift.

“It’s in their hands now,” said City’s caretaker manager Alan Mahon. “We’re just going to concentrate on each game. There’s a lot of games between now and the end of the season and there will be a twist.

“It wasn’t great for my heart, but it was a great game for the neutral,” he added of his third game in charge.

Within 30 seconds we were buckled in for a fast-paced ride. The Scotland forward Erin Cuthbert split the City defence with a through ball to her teammate Sam Kerr. The Australian lifted the ball over City’s Ellie Roebuck but somehow the young goalkeeper got some contact and forced the ball away, with striker Beth England, one of 10 players in Phil Neville’s squad for the SheBelieves Cup on the pitch, completely missing the tap in at the far post.

One minute later and Ellen White was released at the other end and thwarted only by a block from the Norwegian defender Maren Mjelde. Those 90 seconds were a taste of the 90 minutes to come.

There was no structure, rhythm or pattern to the game. Instead the ball ricocheted thrillingly from one end to the other. It was the home team that took the advantage.

Ellen White levels for City. Photograph: Richard Sellers/PA

On 22 minutes a soft clearance fell to Janine Beckie out wide and the Canadian winger swept low to the near post for White to poke past Ann-Katrin Berger.

The goal punctured Chelsea’s swagger, but it shouldn’t have. There is a resilience to the London Blues. In the seven league games when Hayes’ side had conceded first they had come back to win five and draw two, including home victories against Arsenal and City. This game added to that list.

The London team were perhaps unlucky not to have been awarded a penalty when the ball brushed Demi Stokes’ arm from a free-kick but they found the equaliser shortly after, and against the run of play. City’s captain, Steph Houghton, headed away Mjelde’s cross but the ball dropped at the feet of Ji who swept in, with it taking a slight deflection off the head of Stokes.

After a marginally slower start to the second half City grew in stature. And, just shy of the hour mark, they pounced. From a sweeping counterattack Lauren Hemp curled the ball towards Stanway, with Millie Bright and Mjelde caught napping, and the England forward clipped past Berger with her right foot.

Magdalena Eriksson celebrates scoring teammates Erin Cuthbert and Sam Kerr. Photograph: Harriet Lander/Chelsea FC via Getty Images

Chelsea though, had found their fight, levelling again through Eriksson, whose header was fumbled over the line by Roebuck. A penalty save by Berger from Stanway then kept them tied, after the midfielder Caroline Weir was fouled in the box.

Then, for the first time, Chelsea took the lead. A searing 30-yard strike from England flying into the corner past a helpless Roebuck for her 14th league goal of the season.

The exhilarating encounter continued to treat the 3,542 fans, a skied Chelsea clearance was brought down by Weir’s thigh and she prodded a pass into the run of Hemp on the left and the 19-year-old lashed low past Berger to cut off Chelsea’s lead after just two minutes.

“We were terrible defensively,” said Hayes. “This is the longest chunk of the season with no break. It’s tough for the players. We have to recognise they are humans.

“I’m happy to be unbeaten still, I’m happy we’re still in for the title, I’m happy we’re in the final and I’m not watching it at home. My glass is half full and I’m happy with that.”