“We cruised to victory against Reading…” reads the Arsenal website, in the aftermath of our thumping four-nil win against the Royals, at Meadow Park.
Goals from Kim Little, Frida Maanum and Leah Williamson, as well as an own-goal from Emma Mukandi, sealed our third consecutive win in the league and helped closing the gap with the leading positions – although Chelsea remains five points clear ahead of the hunting pack.
I admit I was hoping for a different outcome from Kingsmeadow, where Chelsea beat Manchester United thanks to a goal from the inevitable Same Kerr, but I guess I can be happy with us being back to the second place (potentially, at least) given that we are three points behind Manchester United, with a game in hand.
Jonas Eidevall made a few, interesting changes to his lineup, going into the game against Reading: Leah Williamson joined Lia Wälti and Kim Little in midfield, while Frida Maanum played upfront in place of Stina Blackstenius, who started on the bench. As a result, Lotte Wubben-Moy was reinstated to the starting XI, alongside Rafaelle.
Another piece of surprise was the deployment of Noëlle Maritz as left-back, with both full-backs playing very high on the pitch to take the spaces vacated by our wingers, who exchanged their position quite frequently. The fluidity of our setup was very difficult to read for Reading, who can consider themselves lucky not to have conceded more goals – especially in the first half. Katie McCabe and Caitlin Foord were both very active and sharp on the wings, regularly beating their opponents to create a numerical advantage across the frontline, while in the middle of the park we could very easily break Reading’s lines thanks to the vision and execution of Lia Wälti, Leah Williamson and Kim Little.
It was a one-way affair from the very first minute and a comfortable, deserved win for our ladies, who can now make the most of the time available to prepare the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Bayern Munich.
We’ll talk again on Wednesday, 22nd of March, to see how our European campaign pans out.
Take care, Gooners!
Italian living in Switzerland, Gooner since mid-nineties, when the Gunners defeated my hometown team, in Copenhagen. I started my own blog and podcast (www.clockenditalia.com) after after some experiences with Italian websites and football magazines. Covering Arsenal Women with the occasional rant about the boys.
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