Arsenal play at home to Aston Villa in the WSL on Sunday with a crowd of around 30,000 expected. In this fixture last season, Arsenal were 1-0 down heading into stoppage time. But goals from Katie McCabe and Alessia Russo in added time gave the Gunners a 2-1 victory.
In that game in October 2023, Beth Mead made her return from the bench after 11 months out with an ACL injury. She assisted the winner for Lessi Russo. Arseblog News asks Beth about her memories of this fixture last season.
‘It was a weird game for me,’ she tells us. ‘My first game back and coming on in the 88th minute. We were 1-0 down and it’s my first game back and I am thinking, ‘ok, no pressure!’ I loved every minute of it though, it was a cagey game and we had a lot of possession and we’ve had that a lot in games and not been able to get over the line.
‘To be part of those moments and being on the pitch and being able to assist the winner was a dream coming back from an ACL injury. It was a weird moment in a way but maybe one of my prouder moments. I am excited about this fixture again, we are expecting a cagey game again and we have to figure out how to not make it as cagey this time.’
In the wake of making the winner for Russo in the 96th minute on that day, Mead stuck a leg out amidst a flurry of Villa defenders to poke the ball into Russo’s path. I ask Mead whether any doubt entered her mind as she extended her leg in that moment, so soon after coming back from a big knee injury.
‘I think a lot of people winced but I didn’t! People who know me know I don’t overthink it on the pitch. Through rehab I looked myself in the mirror and I knew I had done everything I needed in my rehab to make it ok. For people watching, it is not as nice to see, especially that type of movement. But at the time I didn’t even think about it.
‘I just thought ‘I am putting my foot in here.’ I dragged two players out from doing that and it helped Less get that space to score. I didn’t think about it but there were a few girls recovering from ACLs on the bench who were wincing a bit as well. It wasn’t anything that went through my mind though.’
Recently Beth has started games on the bench with the blend between Mariona and Caitlin Foord on the flanks working very well. Mariona, like Mead, likes to come inside and play centrally while Caitlin holds the width of the pitch. Arseblog News asks Mead how she goes about winning a starting place back and whether it is a case of adapting or continuing to accentuate her well established qualities.
‘The game is an ever evolving game and as a player you have to be ever evolving. I was a nine and I became a winger. That is why I like to be inside and closer to the goal but I am a good winger and can put in a good cross from out wide as well.
‘Ultimately I know that I can do what I do at a good level but I know I need to be able to do both of those things at my level because that makes the manager’s decision harder because I think I can do both those things.
‘I back myself as a player I have been training hard and well and I am trying to give Renee a headache. But it is great in terms of the competition and it only makes us better as individuals. I don’t want to be sat on the bench but it makes you better as a player and a person.’
Interim boss Renee Slegers will remain in charge until Christmas, at which point the Gunners will have three weeks without games over the break. Mead says that her and her teammates are happy to have the Dutchwoman in charge for a while longer having won six and drawn one of her seven games in charge so far.
‘We have just been made aware of that this morning as well. Everyone is very happy about her being in charge still. We don’t know as much as maybe you do about what is going on behind the scenes but we are happy where we are as a team right now.
‘I understand what the club are doing, they are being thorough in their search. It is a difficult time of the season to try to get somebody in. I think it is good the club are not rushing and looking for the right fit, the way they are approaching we are all aligned with.’ Mead says that, while the energy has changed a little under Slegers, the effort was always there.
‘As players, even though it wasn’t going as planned earlier in the season we were still really trying. We were trying to figure things out and we are starting to get the rewards from that now and Renee is keeping us in a good place. She has been a player so she has been through this process. We felt better in the last block and we want to take that into the next blocks whoever may be in charge.’
Mead says the mood has become a little lighter in the camp recently. ‘There is a lot of laughter at the moment, I think I played one of my best seasons just before the Euros and that was because I was happy and was having fun.
‘You lose that sometimes in football because of how serious the game is now but you start because you love it and that is what you need to get back sometimes and then the performances come back better again.’
Mead has also recently begun her coaching badges and while the realisation of that education might lay ahead in the future, the 29-year-old insists she is taking something from that process now. ‘When you start doing your coaching badges alongside playing, you start looking at things differently.
‘You understand how the game is, sometimes having that balance of playing and understanding how it is and the expectation is on players and what the day-in and day-out looks for players. How it is to be a professional and sometimes that can give you an edge as a coach, thinking about my own philosophy might be as a coach and what I would want to implement comes from my playing career and the game and what players need and want and finding the balance between that and being good tactically and personally too. That is why Renee has had such a good effect on us so far.’
Mead also thinks she has been developing her leadership skills as she looks ahead to her ninth year at Arsenal. ‘I came here when I was 21 and I have seen myself change and become a different person within the team. For example, at half time trying to give information and people listening because they respect that you have been doing this a long time.
‘Today in training some of the younger players and the development staff were asking me stuff because I have done it for a long time. It is a weird and different role but one I have grown into. I had players that helped me for a long time and if I can do anything similar then I want to.
‘I don’t watch football matches at home and and not look at things like the formation and what things look like or how teams are trying to exploit weaknesses and since starting my coaching journey I am looking at the game differently but it is helping me with my football as well.’