Hello Arsenal Women aficionados, and welcome to the latest episode of the Arsenal Women Journal!
Today’s episode is supposed to be a very happy one, but for various reasons I can’t feel like celebrating.
Sure, beating Chelsea and Emma Hayes always tastes very sweet and so does bringing home another piece of silverware, but some very recent events left a sour taste.
The huge win and great performance delivered at Molineux stadium all but confirmed that this group of players should have competed for the league, instead of being battered by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge a fortnight ago and being kicked out of the title challenge with six games to spare.
Why can’t this team find any consistency?
Where were the intensity, aggression, focus they displayed in the league cup final?
I can’t recall so many wins being this infuriating, if any at all.
I am not trying to be the buzz killer here, but I can’t help thinking that the Conti Cup triumph is the ultimate evidence that this team could and should do more.
As I wrote in my latest Arsenal Women Journal, bringing home the league cup feels like a consolation more than anything else, while last year it felt like a vindication for the team’s efforts when navigating a very complicated period.
I don’t want to take anything away from Jonas Eidevall, his staff and the players but I am not as optimistic as I was at the end of last season. There was so much to enjoy, last Sunday: the way the head coach prepared the game, the way the players transposed his ideas on the pitch, the collective and individual efforts, the continued focus on display etc. but where was all of that, throughout this season?
How do we know which Arsenal will take the pitch, the next time we play?
Unless Jonas Eidevall finds an answer to this question, I cannot feel truly optimistic about our short- and medium-term future.
The other big event of the afternoon was Frida Maanum malaise and the awful scenes that followed, with the medical team rushing on the pitch and the Norwegian wonderkid being stretchered out, while on oxygen. Jonas Eidevall’s words were reassuring and welcome, but it is hard to think about celebrating a win after witnessing such a distressing event. It’s always extremely scary to see a player collapse on the pitch, with no contact of apparent injury, so it was relieving to hear that she was in stable conditions, conscious and responsive. Let’s hope that Frida Maanum can recover quickly and completely, with no consequences either physical or mental, and can go back to being the driving force she is been for the past 18 months. Until the incident, she was one of the best players on the pitch in her hybrid role between midfield and attack, making it difficult for Chelsea to follow her closely.
All in all, it was great to see some of the players who endured a difficult time at Stamford Bridge to step up against their nemesis: Manu Zinsberger, Stina Blackstenius in particular have been impressive, with Leah Williamson much closer to her true self compared to the league defeat.
Jonas Eidevall was also among those looking for redemption, and succeeded brilliantly: the tactical approach was spotless, and so were the substitutions and the game management.
Next up for our crazy team is Bristol City at home, on Sunday next week: this game will be the beginning of a three-games “easy” run that will take us to the last big game of the season, at City in the penultimate match of the season. If we win all of them, we might still have an outside chance at grabbing the second place, but our chances are extremely slim.
The target, between today and the end of the campaign, will be to win as many games as possible, play as nicely as possible and build momentum going into next season. We are likely to face another very early start, and some painful hurdles to get into the Champions League group stage, so we better get there with belief and positiveness.
We’ll talk again after the game against Bristol Rovers, on Monday 15th of April.
Talk 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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