Hello, Arsenal Women aficionados!
Renée’s first home game at the Emirates Stadium as Arsenal’s permanent head coach could not have been more memorable! The 5-0 thrashing of Tottenham Hotspur has been the perfect medicine after the sucker punch received from Mary Fowler and Manchester City in the league cup semifinal, at Meadow Park.
The blow of missing out on a third consecutive league cup final could have been hard to recover from, but the players reacted very well and made sure that a loss would not turn into a series of losses, derailing what has been a remarkable upturn in fortunes since last October.
Photo Courtesy of Arsenal.com
The team did well to defeat the London City Lionesses, in the FA Cup, and then to win the North London Derby to confirm that the players could get the league cup defeat out of their systems and keep pushing in the second half of the season.
Winning both games after the league cup semi-final ensures that we are still in the hunt for a record fifteenth FA Cup trophy and well-placed to finish in the UWCL spots in the league, although Manchester City is only two points behind us.
The international break will allow Renée Slegers and her staff to prepare for the next block of games, which will start with hosting West Ham in the WSL before embarking on a long journey that will see us play Liverpool and Real Madrid twice, plus Everton and Crystal Palace in twenty-one days.
RENÉE’S WORDS
Disappointment aside, Renée Slegers was happy with the progress shown by the team, despite the last-minute defeat to Manchester City and consequent elimination from the league cup. The Dutch was much happier in the aftermath of the two-nil win against the London City Lionesses in the FA Cup, and spent time praising USWNT defender Jenna Nighswonger, who made her debut for the club: “I’ve been talking about it, that we need versatile players in the team. She’s a left-back who can also play inside, and that’s what she did for us today. We had long conversations about her role, and she picked it up really well. So I’m happy we could give her the debut, and she’s going now for us, so that’s great.”
Signed as a left-back, the former Gotham FC player might surprise a few with her ability to play different roles, and the assumption that she would provide back-up and competition for Katie McCabe might prove very short-sighted, in the end. When she replaced Mariona Caldentey in the North London Derby, the US international was deployed at left-wing with license to roam inside, on her “weaker” right foot, to open up spaces and passing lanes: “Jenna has just been really good with her left foot on the left wing, can also play with the right foot, combines really well and understands positioning really well.”
We might be up to some surprises from Renée Slegers on that left channel, with Steph Catley, Lia Wälti, Katie McCabe, Jenna Nighswonger and Mariona Caldentey all more than capable of playing multiple roles and positions.
LESSONS LEARNED
The “other” debutant is ready to make her mark. Chloe Kelly, our deadline signing on loan from Manchester City, has finally put on the Arsenal shirt for the second time in her career and made her debut against the Tottenham Hotspur, in the league. She almost marked her second debut with a goal, like she did on her real debut, but she hit the crossbar instead. Despite some rustiness and an obvious lack of understanding with her new teammates, she showed right away how much her speed, directness and incisiveness in the final third could prove extremely helpful for the team in the second part of the season.
With Chloe Kelly, we completed an impressive array of attacking options and we will present our opponents with a remarkable set of problems to solve, whether it is from the first minute or during the game.
Photo Courtesy of Arsenal.com
The quicker she can integrate the team and adapt to Renée Slegers’ principles, the more the team will benefit from her obvious qualities, although competition remains very high for the England international: Caitlin Foord registered two assists in the North London Derby, and players like Alessia Russo, Lina Hurtig, Beth Mead, Mariona Caldentey and Katie McCabe can operate as wide forwards, if called upon, making Chloe Kelly’s desire for regular minutes very hard to achieve.
These are all great problems to have, from our perspective, but the head coach will need to keep everyone focused and motivated, even when designated to “game changers”, rather than substitutes.
Photo Courtesy of Arsenal.com
Elsewhere on the pitch, the past three games reinforced Daphne van Domselaar status as our first choice between the sticks and one of the best goalkeepers in the WSL: the Dutch international parried away a penalty from Mary Fowler in the league cup and produced a string of fine saves in the same game, before controlling her penalty area with panache against Tottenham. I am not sure where this leaves Manuela Zinsberger, but it seems now clear that the Austrian is only in contention for “minor” games, as she played against the London City Lionesses but was dropped for the league cup semifinal.
With Naomi Williams pushing, I would not be surprised to see Manu leaving next summer, in search of more regular football.
On a side note, the U21 team welcomed two very familiar faces in their starting XI, with both Victoria Pelova and Amanda Ilestedt playing and scoring against Manchester United. The Dutch international has been training with the first team for a few weeks now, after injuring her ACL, but is still far away from a fill return to action and needs minutes to build her fitness and shrug off the rust. Yet, she will definitely become a major asset in the spring, and might become “like a new signing” to quote the legendary Arsène Wenger, so these minutes are more than welcome.
NEXT’S UP
It’s international break now, meaning that we will be all praying whichever god or divinity to make sure that our players come back home healthy and fit. When actual football resumes, we will be facing West Ham in the league, then Liverpool in the FA Cup, both at home, before travelling to Everton and then to Spain, to face Real Madrid in the UWCL quarterfinals. The Spanish are not as intimidating as their masculine counterparts but are sitting comfortably in second behind Barcelona in the Spanish league and boast a squad full of international and a fantastic young striker in Linda Caicedo, one of the best prospect in world football, so it will be a very hard, thrilling tie.
Without looking too far ahead, though, let’s wait for the international break to be over and see if our girls can keep Manchester United under pressure and Manchester City at a good distance, in the league: both are expected to win against Leicester and Tottenham, respectively, so it is going to be vital to grab the three points against the Irons and put ourselves in the best possible position to take advantage of any slip-up, in front or behind us.
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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