The Arsenal Women Journal – We’re Going to Lisbon! [ARS 1-2 OL, OL 1-4 ARS]

Hello, Arsenal Women aficionados!

I am lost for words. Speechless.

The magnitude of the Arsenal Women’s result against European serial-winners Olympique Lyonnais is gargantuan, especially if you consider that we travelled to France on the back of a 2-1 loss at the Emirates Stadium.

Very few people fancied us to walk out of the Groupama Stadium with a win and a ticket for the UWCL final in Lisbon, but here we are.

Goals from Mariona Caldentey, Alessia Russo and Caitlin Foord, plus an unfortunate own-goal from the hosts’ goalkeeper, meant that we will play in our second-ever UWCL final, the first since 2007.

Barcelona will be overwhelmingly favourite to lift the trophy and are probably relieved that we qualified over Olympique Lyonnais, but who cares? We went from freefalling in September to playing for the biggest European prize in May, in one of the most exciting and unexpected turnarounds I can remember of.

When the players walk on the pitch of the Estadio José Alvalade, on May 24^th, I will be thinking about all the negativity that surrounded the club between the end of last season and last winter, and I hope the players will do the same so they understand how far they are coming from, and how proud they should be of their incredible journey.

RENÉE’S WORDS

No surprises here, as the word used the most by Renée Slegers during her post-match media duties was “pride”:

“I’m very happy and, of course, very proud because I think what the club have been doing for so long, investing in women’s football and I think what we get to do now is something that’s been worked on for a long, long time. But, of course, what we’re doing in the moment, what the players are doing at the moment, it’s unbelievable.

“I’m so proud of the team and their investments and the work ethic and how they stayed calm because I think that was the biggest key for us today, to stay calm in all the scenarios that would happen. I think we are challenged in a lot of different scenarios today, but the players stayed calm and that was key today. So, I’m very, very proud.”

Pride is indeed the word, because our players took on Olympique Lyonnais with such calmness and self-confidence that I never truly felt the pressure of the moment. The hosts had some chances and put us under pressure, but it didn’t last more than 15 minutes, between our second goal and the hour mark.

We had more attempts and more shots on target than Lyon, and Daphne van Domselaar had a much quieter afternoon compared to her counterpart, which speaks volumes about how the game went by.

Such calmness and assertiveness did not surprise Renée Slegers, who knows her players inside out:

“They believe in what we’re doing, and they believe in each other. They believe in themselves. They are willing to put the work in and I think that’s what creates belief as well because we see ourselves working really hard every day. Of course, we’ve proven it before that we’re able to score goals in short periods of time and come back from setbacks. So, belief is an inner conviction that you don’t need proof for, but I think we had the evidence going into this game and that’s what made the confidence so big and the belief so high”.

Then, the head coach spent a few words on how the game was prepared and setup:

“What we said is that we don’t want to waste any minute on the pitch, we want to come out and play our game from the first moment because we know exactly what we want to do and what we need to do. I think that is what we did, we got the early goal, which is good for us, but it also forces a new question for Lyon because it changes the scenario for them, what are they going to do now when we score so early? We had a clear strategy because you can’t plan when you score goals, but we had a clear strategy for what we wanted to do after goals were scored”.

Anyone who plays or watches football regularly knows that scoring an early goal on a comeback mission could quickly derail the whole game, either because the opponents suddenly become more aware or more focused, or because the players are caught in between two minds and don’t know whether to push harder or retreat.

The way the players behaved after scoring the opener has been simply phenomenal, staying calm and collected while pushing for another goal.

It becomes more and more apparent how Renée Slegers changed the mentality of her players, who look to be enjoying their football and playing with great focus, but the former assistant coach quickly rebuffed any attempt to bring the spotlight on her.

“[…] I am so proud of the whole team; I am so happy we achieved this. It is a team performance, and I don’t take myself out of what the team is doing, I am on the team. These are the big games and the final stages, but there was so much work we had to do before, we had to qualify for early in the season but all the work the club has done over many years to get us into this position as an organisation to be able to compete on this level”.

(She might not like this, but…) Take a bow, Renée!

LESSONS LEARNED

Among the team effort and individual brilliance, Kim Little truly stole the show in Lyon. Her composure, fighting spirit, vision and leadership inspired the whole team, and took her teammates to the next level.

She forced a very good save to win the corner from which we scored the opener, then fought for a loose ball around Lyon penalty area in the build-up to Mariona Caldentey’s amazing strike and completed 94% of her passes and 100% of her attempted take-ons. At the other end of the pitch, she registered 4 clearances (the most for a midfielder) and recovered the most loose-balls (8) among all the players on the pitch, including Lyon’s.

At almost 35 years of age, Kim Little delivered a true midfield masterclass.

The team performed so well as a unit, and every player knew exactly what to do at any given time. One of the most important reasons for that has surely been Renée Slegers ability to build an “ideal” starting XI and make very few changes, unless they were forced on her. It is no coincidence that the defense became so reliable since Renée established a back-five of Daphne van Domselaar, Emily Fox, Leah Williamson and Katie McCabe, and didn’t rotate unless it was made necessary. Obviously, a player like Manuela Zinsberger paid a high price and saw their minutes limited to a bare minimum, but that’s how you build a winning team.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Lotte Wubben-Moy, who recently signed a new contract, once she is fully fit: the England international was the supporters’ player of the year in 2023/24 and was poised to take her place alongside Leah Williamson, but Steph Catley’s switch to left center-back has reshuffled the cards.

Renée Slegers won’t change anything between now and the end of the season, but next summer is going to be very important for Lotte Wubben-Moy, who can still aspire to a place in the England team for the European Championship and who will have to fight to win her place back in our starting XI.

Similarly to what happened with the back-five, Renée Slegers seems to have picked her ideal midfield trio, which is way different from what many had in mind at the beginning of the season: Mariona Caldentey, originally signed to play in the attacking line, is now part of the midfield double-pivot alongside Kim Little, with Frida Maanum ahead of them, in a 4-2-3-1 rather than a 4-3-3.

The change of formation means that both Lia Wälti and Kyra Cooney-Cross, who excel as a lone pivot at the base of midfield, are not finding much space in the starting XI – which could become problematic over time. The Swiss international, especially, could become a bit frustrated with the lack of playing time, and while injuries and setbacks surely played a part in her reduced role, there is a sense that the team is slowly moving in a different direction. Her leadership, experience and technical skills remain among the best in our current team, but she is facing a steep uphill task in dislodging Mariona Caldentey from her place next to Kim Little. The former Barcelona player is more dynamic and more threatening than Lia Wälti, which seems to compensate for the superior composure and tactical discipline brought by the Swiss, so I am not sure things are likely to change anytime soon.

Lia Wälti, who will captain Switzerland during their home European Championship this summer, might well be playing for her own future, as well as her country. Losing Lia Wälti would be a huge blow for the team, but the change of formation and emergence of Kyra Cooney-Cross could sweeten it a bit.

Finally, the same might happen with Chloe Kelly and Beth Mead: the Manchester City loanee started in Lyon and was replaced by Beffi with twenty minutes remaining, while the opposite happened during the first leg. So far, Chloe Kelly started 6 of her 9 appearances in all competitions (66%), Beth Mead only started half of hers, and the fact that our number 18 can play on either wing is a clear advantage over the former Sunderland forward.

We’re not in the “either or” territory yet, but it looks increasingly especially as Caitlin Foord is virtually unmovable at left winger and played the most minutes among our wide players (not considering Mariona Caldentey, who is more of a midfielder).

If Chloe Kelly signs a new contract with the club in the summer, once her current deal with Manchester City expires, Renée Slegers will have three potent wide forwards at her disposal, which should be very fun to watch.

Brick after brick, Renée Slegers is building the spine of this team, and I must admit that I like the balance of enthusiasm, experience, technical ability, power and combativeness that she found in what can be considered as her “ideal XI”. It will be very interesting to see how she will upgrade next summer, and how she will shape the future of this team.

Our current squad is in its prime or about to hit it, with many players in the 26-30 years old bracket and a few experienced heads (Kim Little, Lia Wälti, Steph Catley) or youth prospects (Kyra Cooney-Cross, Rosa Kafaji, Katie Reid), so we are in a scenario where we need to cherry-pick this or that player, and possibly add a couple of youngsters to start the rejuvenation process. To do so, some players will have to make room, and I am genuinely curious to see who will leave, because there is not a single player, I would give up on in this group.

In Daphne van Domselaar, Emily Fox, Mariona Caldentey and Alessia Russo, the club managed to add four building blocks that provide quality, durability and reliability to our spine, which is completed by Leah Williamson and Katie McCabe and can be considered among the best in Europe.

Anyways, back to the triumph in France and the remainder of the season.

I spoke about Kim Little, I spoke about our impressive discipline out of possession and the mental strength of the team, but I need to spend a few words on a player that literally changed the face of this team: Mariona Caldentey.

While her arrival flew a bit under the radar because of the departure of Vivianne Miedema and partly because of the confusion surrounding her role in the team, the former Barcelona player is a genuine star of the game and is taking the team on a different level. Sure, it took time to adapt to her new surroundings, but in Mariona Caldentey we found a player who scores like a forward and fights like a midfielder, who brings the creativity of a number 10 and the grit of a number 8, all at once. It seems that she found her place in midfield – which is reminiscent of Santi Cazorla’s transformation under Arsène Wenger, in the men’s team – and will surely dictate our Renée Slegers builds the team for next few years. We already reached the stage where the team sheet is Mariona Caldentey + 10 other players, and rightly so.

Her wondergoal against Olympique Lyonnais was the cherry on the cake and her 20^th goal involvement in her debut season at Arsenal, which includes 14 goals in all competitions – her best goal tally to date. By moving to Arsenal, Mariona Caldentey went from being a very good player in an exceptional team to the star player in North London, and she dealt with that spectacularly, becoming one of the leaders of this team.

Alongside Alessia Russo, Katie McCabe and Emily Fox, Mariona Caldentey is among the strongest candidates for the Player of the Year award, and it will be interesting how the supporters will vote once the poll opens.

NEXT’S UP

Our beloved Arsenal Women team will be on the pitch again on Wednesday evening at Villa Park, taking on a struggling Aston Villa in the third to last match of the WSL.

Given that Manchester United are hosting Chelsea a few hours later, the hope is to grab the three points and enjoy the big game at Old Trafford, knowing that any result will make us happy: if Chelsea wins, as widely expected, the title will be virtually theirs but the gap between us and the Red Devils in third would become almost impossible to close; if Manchester United wins, we would find ourselves only three points away from Chelsea, at the top, with two games remaining, and if they draw, we’ll winning two points off each team.

We’re going to Lisbon, but not yet just…so hopefully the players will remain focused on finishing the domestic season as high as possible, before enjoying their big day in Portugal.

We’ll talk again after the away game at Aston Villa!

Speak to you soon!

Andrea Rosati

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.