In-depth Review: Just where do Eidevall’s Arsenal Women go from here? by Michelle
Arsenal Women were flying high as they went into the Christmas break. They were sitting 2nd in the WSL, only 3 points behind Chelsea with a game in hand. They had qualified for the UEFA Women’s Champions League in style, finishing at the top of their group. Like title champions Chelsea, they had still only lost one WSL game all season.
All of this despite being plagued by injuries when we saw Arsenal lose Leah Williamson and Rafaelle Souza for 2 months to foot injuries near the start of the season, followed by captain Kim Little and Lina Hurtig for 2 months with knee injuries. Then bang! In November Beth Mead went down with a significant ACL injury and within 4 weeks Vivianne Miedema suffered the same fate – Arsenal had lost 2 of their best players – the players that scored 66% of all Arsenal goals the previous season and many seasons before that..
Arsenal made some pretty significant changes in the January transfer window but their biggest loss by far was Arsenal legend Jordan Nobbs, which devastated Arsenal fans, as she transferred to Aston Villa to increase her chances of being included in Sarina Wiegman’s England Women’s World Cup squad. Arsenal’s Japanese international Mana Iwabuchi also made a move on loan to North London rivals Tottenham, again to increase her chances of inclusion in the Japan squad for the upcoming Fifa Women’s World Cup, which is being held in Australia and New Zealand this summer.
Arsenal also secured a number of players in the transfer window, bringing in 23 year old Dutch international midfielder Victoria Pelova, 19 year old Danish international midfielder Kathrine Kuhl, 29 year old Canadian international goalkeeper Sabrina D’Angelo and lastly, bringing 19 year old Brazilian international winger Gio Queiroz back to the Arsenal squad after a loan-spell at Everton.
What Arsenal failed to do in that transfer window, despite being linked to international strkers Cloe Lacasse, Signe Bruun and Alessia Russo, was secure a prolific goalscorer. And you can see that failure written all over the Arsenal squad in my opinion.
Now fast forward to the New Year in the WSL and everything seemed to start unravelling for our Gunners. First up they faced Chelsea in the WSL in front of a 46,000-strong crowd at Emirates Stadium and, despite being 1-0 in front, had to settle for a 1-1 draw due to a late Sam Kerr goal. Not too bad one might think – drawing with the title champions. But at the same time Manchester United’s dominant 6-0 win over Liverpool boosted Man United to 2nd in the WSL and slipped Arsenal to 3rd.
The following week both Arsenal & Chelsea had games postponed due to frozen pitches, allowing Man United to take the WSL top spot.
Arsenal then managed to turn in some good performances, beating Aston Villa 3-0 to secure their place in the FA Conti Cup semi-final and beating 4th-tier Leeds United 9-0 to take them to the fifth round of the Vitality Women’s FA Cup. Not too shabby.. things might be looking up for our Gunners?
Arsenal then went into a ‘must win’ WSL clash with West Ham in early February as Manchester City had taken their WSL third spot after a 2-0 win over Leicester, but they could not manage more than a 0-0 draw against the Hammers.
Then came FA Cup champions Manchester City in the FA Conti Cup semi-final that remained 0-0 at full-time. In the 3rd minute of extra-time Blackstenius scored – a 1-0 lead being the final score and taking Arsenal to the FA Conti Cup Final against Chelsea.
Our Gunners then met Manchester City for the 2nd time in 3 days, but this time in a crucial match in the WSL title race. This was a match where Arsenal suffered a shocking 2-1 defeat by Man City knocking our Gunners into 4th spot in the WSL, leaving the WSL table looking this below:
All WSL teams are currently on an international break but our Gunners don’t have an easy ride ahead of them – far from it in fact! First up after the international break are two meetings with Chelsea – the first on 26th February in the Vitality FA Cup 5th round ,and the second one week later on 5th March when Arsenal face Chelsea in the FA Conti Cup Final at Selhurst Park.
Is it too early in the season to be worried? What do you think Arsenal’s chances are of progressing to silverware in Cup games? What are our Gunners chances as they face Bayern Munich twice in February in the Champions League quarter-finals?
How high are your confidence levels?
Michelle Maxwell
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No confidence at All, it’s the same as men’s team.