Good morning, Arsenal Women aficionados!
It took us way too long, but finally we got our first clean sheet in the league. That, on level with Beth Mead starting her first league game in a year, is probably the ultimate take away from the convincing three-nil win at Brighton.
While wins got us much closer to the top, our current goal difference is still somewhat unconvincing and unfit for the title challenge we intend to mount, especially when compared to Chelsea’s.
Our meagre +9, combined with one clean-sheet in seven games, speaks of a team with frailties at the back and an evident inability to tighten things up, defensively, and should be addressed quickly if Jonas Eidevall and the team want to keep up with the defending champions. While our attacking numbers are still somehow underwhelming, the number of chances we created so far have been encouraging, although we didn’t convert enough of those, while at the back we often looked disjointed and a bit sloppy, making it very difficult for ourselves to win games.
Looking back at the way we conceded in some games, like the season opener against Liverpool or at Manchester United, it was easy to see how our players were not alert enough and how the communication between them was poor, at best, or completely absent. In that regard, the control and attention on display against Brighton was a breath of fresh air and a very encouraging sign of things to come – especially once Leah Williamson is fully fit.
As much as I enjoyed the late winners against Aston Villa and Manchester City or the brilliant comeback against Leicester, we were all due a comfortable win, by now. With Manu Zinsberger virtually untested and Brighton never truly threatening, except for a couple of corners, we all enjoyed a relatively quiet afternoon, culminating in a well-deserved win and the feeling that the team is finally taking off after a very rough period. We could have closed the game much earlier, but I don’t have much to complain about, in that sense, as Caitlin Foord and Frida Maanum, beautifully set-up by the unselfish Cloé Lacasse, scored two great goals in the final ten minutes of the game.
Credit: Arsenal.com
Our fifth win in a row is the most telling of the lot, in terms of maturity and awareness: the team got off to a quick start, got the lead early and then controlled the game, the ball and the tempo for the remainder of the encounter. Let’s not forget that Brighton came into this game on the back of a surprise win against Manchester City, away, and were determined to pull another big win – so I am pleased to see that we kept them quiet and quickly made it clear that there was no chance for another upset.
I also liked the way Jonas Eidevall used his squad, handing starts to Noëlle Maritz, Beth Mead and Stina Blackstenius in place of Steph Catley, Frida Maanum and Cloé Lacasse but keeping his structure in place, especially in midfield. He didn’t rush back Lia Wälti, who is just back from injury, and gave the ever-present Steph Catley a well-deserved breather, knowing that we will play another two games, this week. The impressive Kyra Cooney-Cross kept her place at the base of midfield and delivered another masterful performance, while Beth Mead and Noëlle Maritz could work in tandem to fine-tune their combinations after so much time apart from one another.
Credit: Arsenal.com
Lots of positives that I hope we will take into the game against Southampton but, most importantly, in the last league game before the international break, against West Ham. I guess that Jonas Eidevall will rotate more heavily against the Saints, on Thursday night, which will give Sabrina D’Angelo, Kathrine Kühl and Laia Codina another chance to impress, and then revert to his strongest XI when we host the Irons, on Sunday afternoon. The fun side of this is that Jonas Eidevall can still field a very strong side even when resting some of his key players and limit the disruption to the way his team is playing.
The home game against West Ham, who are currently 11th on level with Bristol City, will serve as the final rehearsal before the big game against Chelsea, scheduled for December 10th at the Emirates Stadium. Unfortunately the last international break of the year will disrupt the preparation for the big test, the hope of course is that all the players will come back fresh and unscathed but Australia will play Canada twice, in Langford and then in Vancouver, which will have a big effect on Steph Catley, Caitlin Foord, Kyra Cooney-Cross, Sabrina D’Angelo and Cloé Lacasse due to the back-and-forth travelling, while England will play the Netherlands and Scotland, and Sweden will play Switzerland and Spain, all in the Nations League, so we can expect players to be leggy upon their return.
Will the five days between the final international games and the big showdown be enough? Let’s hope so.
Last season, the home draw against Chelsea was probably the sliding door moment of our league campaign, as we could have caught up with them and still had a game in hand – but didn’t. On that occasion, we were made to pay a huge price for the chances we couldn’t convert and had to settle for a draw, courtesy of a Sam Kerr late header. Not winning a game that we thoroughly deserved to win surely affected our momentum, then heavy injuries to key players did the rest.
I don’t want to get ahead of myself so early, as we still have two games to play before we host Chelsea, but everything that the coaching staff and the players will be doing until then must be focused on getting in the best possible shape – mental and physical – to give Chelsea a real fight and, why not, completing the remontada we started when Alessia Russo won us the game against Aston Villa. Back then, when Maz Pacheco scored the Aston Villa opener, everything looked doomed: out of the Champions League, virtually out of the title race within the first month of the campaign and dangerously close to questioning all the work done by the club and Jonas Eidevall over the past twelve months.
To be where we are today, meaning three points away from the top of the table, is already a remarkable achievement but should serve as a platform for further success, not as a landing point. We still have three world class players recovering from their injuries and some new players blending in, if we keep up until they are all fit and firing, it could be extremely fun to see this season unfolding in front of our eyes.
Next stop is St. Mary’s Stadium in Southampton, on Thursday night, where we will take on the current third force of the Championship, then we will host West Ham at Meadow Park, on Sunday afternoon. We will talk again next Monday then, to see what happened in each of the games and how we will get into the last international break of 2023.
Speak to you soon!
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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