THE LOWDOWN
Arsenal travel to St. Helen’s to take on Liverpool in the WSL on Sunday afternoon. It’s a very tight turnaround from Thursday night’s 3-1 victory over Valarenga in Oslo with the team flying back straight after the game. Players were given the choice between coming to the training ground for a massage and recovery or taking a day off at home on Friday.
It means there will only be one dedicated training session ahead of the game. With a big Champions League game against Bayern Munich on Wednesday night too, the schedule is unforgiving for Renee Slegers and a stern- maybe even final- examination of her credentials for the top job on a permanent basis.
Arsenal are on a run of six consecutive wins and another win here keeps the pressure on an injury hit Manchester City in second place. Slegers used the squad in Norway on Thursday with Emily Fox, Leah Williamson, Steph Catley and Beth Mead rested completely and Kim Little not risked.
Slegers told Arseblog News on Thursday evening that a mixture of the tough schedule and the fact the team is playing with greater confidence is giving her both license and necessity when it comes to rotation. Arsenal are finding different partnerships as the weeks go on but Matt Beard’s Liverpool will provide a stiff examination of how well prepared Arsenal are in a short space of time.
TEAM NEWS
Renee Slegers says that Kim Little is back in training and could be in contention to play if she comes through training on Saturday. Lia Walti is still unavailable. Victoria Pelova (ACL) and Amanda Ilestedt, who is just returning from maternity leave, are out.
Available squad
Goalkeepers: 1.Zinsberger 14.van Domselaar 40.Williams
Defenders: 2.Fox 3.Wubben-Moy 5.L.Codina 6.Williamson 7.Catley 11.McCabe 26.Wienroither 62.Reid
Midfielders: 8.Mariona 10.Little 12.L.Maanum 16.Kafaji 22.Kuhl 32.Cooney-Cross 61.Harbert
Forwards: 9.Mead 17.Hurtig 19.Foord 23.Russo 25.Blackstenius 53.Lia 56.Godfrey
A WORD FROM THE BOSS
There are some similarities between Valarenga and Liverpool, depending on what Liverpool will do obviously, they have been doing some different things. One day for prep will be enough for us if everyone comes in with focus and high energy. The injuries are hard for them, they are missing some key players.
They are trying to find solutions and find a way to perform against us on Sunday, we are preparing for a tough opponent. Momentum builds momentum and we want to go with that. We are in a flow state but we need to stay sharp and keep looking at what we need to do to stay there and to develop it even further. If we get too happy with it we might lose it.
They have a couple of key players not available but they will still put a strong, competitive team on the pitch on Sunday. If they play their game like they have been doing there are some similarities with Valarenga with the player for player press, so we will need to be good playing out of their press and they have strengths in counter attacks and fast attacks that we will need to stop.
LAST TIME OUT
The teams met in January at Prenton Park and Arsenal ran out 2-0 winners thanks to second half goals from Vivianne Miedema and Caitlin Foord.
THE OPPOSITION
Liverpool enjoyed their best WSL season since winning the league back to back in 2013 and 2014 by finishing 4th in 2023-24. It is true that, like many teams that finish close to the WSL’s big three, they vastly overperformed some key metrics that always suggested a sort of levelling off was in the post without serious squad investment.
Liverpool had a goal difference of +8 last season from an expected goal difference of -1. It is often underestimated how a 22 game league season represents a small sample size. That said, Matt Beard’s side properly established themselves in the league again following their promotion back to the top flight in 2022.
Luck has been less on their side this season, not least with their injury list. But Beard’s side do several things well on a good day. They are strong at counter attacks, have the ability to be very direct and they often deploy a physical player for player marking approach.
PLAYER TO WATCH
Mariona Caldentey has played in a slightly deeper role in the last two games in the absence of Kim Little and Lia Walti. Mariona has effectively been asked to play the Kim Little role with her high technical level and ‘regain and retain’ tackling style. Whether Arsenal will ask Mariona to perform the same role here against a more physical opponent in Liverpool remains to be seen.
Arsenal have filled the void she has left in the front line in different ways over those games. Against Villa, Caitlin Foord and Beth Mead held the width while Mariona drove forward into that left 10 role she usually plays. In Valarenga, it was Russo on the left wing who partnered up with the Spaniard.
Wherever she plays, we are beginning to see the player that Arsenal bought from Barcelona in the summer. Her technical level, ability to carry the ball into space and, perhaps surprisingly, her tackling is very strong too. She averages 3.71 tackles won per 90 minutes, the highest in the Arsenal squad.
PREDICTED LINE UPS
Subs: 1.Zinsberger 3.Wubben-Moy 5.L.Codina 10.Little 16.Kafaji 17.Hurtig 22.Kuhl 25.Blackstenius 26.Wienroither
HOW TO CATCH THE GAME
The game takes place at the Totally Wicked Stadium in St. Helen’s at 2.30pm on Sunday. The game will be broadcast live on Sky Sports in the UK.
COMING UP
Aidan Gibson will have the usual on the whistle match report and we will have every word of Renee Slegers’ post-match press conference online shortly after full-time. Then on Monday, Jamie and I will have an Arsenal Women Arsecast on the game for you, taking listener questions from BlueSky.