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Manchester City Women forward Isobel Christiansen believes the team have sent out a "statement" by winning the Continental Cup.

City beat Arsenal 1-0 to end a 26-year wait for a first major trophy, with the 23-year-old heading in Krystle Johnston's cross for the winning goal.

"It's a huge statement on where we want to go and how we want to build for the future," she told 91�ȱ� Radio Manchester.

"We've won it in our debut WSL season. You can't get much better than that."

Christiansen - who started her career as part of Manchester United's youth set-up - joined City at the start of the season from Birmingham Ladies after first breaking through into the senior game at Everton.

She added: "It hasn't really sunk in yet. Obviously someone has to score the winning goal and it was me. I'm absolutely ecstatic."

Manchester City Women manager Nick Cushing, 29, is in his first season in the women's game and led City to fifth place in their maiden Women's Super League campaign.

"We believed from the start if we do what we do well, which is stick to the plan and put in an unbelievable amount of effort, we could win this trophy," said Cushing.

"We knew we'd been inconsistent and our application had been a bit up and down because of being a new team."