Arsenal Women faced off against Liverpool in their opening game of The Women’s Super League season, walking away narrowly defeated 1-0 at the Emirates, Jonas Eidevall and the Arsenal Women’s fans will be bitterly disappointed in the result.
Arsenal came out in the first half looking the better team, forcing mistakes from the Liverpool midfield and looked to be in complete control of the game. With plenty of shots but nothing clinical enough to put Arsenal in front. Starting with a back three that moved into a back four throughout the game, with Steph Catley switching from Left centre back to left full back and Katie McCabe doing kind of the same but dropping into the midfield to add that extra player in attack saw a lot of balls pass down the wing and lots of crosses put into the Liverpool box.
Arsenal who did well in the first half to play through the low Liverpool defensive block, came unstuck in the second half. After coming out looking a bit tired and not switched on, Liverpool took advantage and were able to catch our women off guard, after a missed judged challenge from Catley, Liverpool managed to make it down the line and cross the ball into the feet of Miri Taylor, who put the ball into the net past Zinsberger.
The Arsenal Women had plenty of opportunities to get rid of the ball before it got to the feet of Taylor but were caught slacking and paid the price. After the Goal went in it was always going to be a tough match to get back into, Liverpool who were mastering the Low Block defending and Arsenal just couldn’t seem to break down their defensive structure.
With a little more luck, we should and could have been 5 goals up but walked away defeated 1-0 at home in the first game of the season. We have a big game coming up next weekend against Manchester United at Leigh Sports Village, who managed to win their opening match against Aston Villa with a late winner. United is never an easy away game and with Alessia Russo returning to play against her old club, tension in the stadium is bound to be high and is a must-win for Arsenal Women if we want to compete for the title this season.
A hard start but we need to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and focus on the game on the weekend. Sure to be a big crowd in Manchester, our Arsenal Women and our fans will be praying we walk away with all three points.
What’s your thoughts Gooners? Could we have done more against Liverpool?
Daisy Mae
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