It is traditional at the start of every New Year to temporarily suspend one’s love of alcohol for the duration of the first month. But whilst those in the pubs pre-match were already going back on their new year promises, Arsenal were upholding their own New Year traditions against Manchester United, with a ‘Dry January’ approach to goalscoring and an all too familiar inept post-Christmas performance.
It said a lot about the game that there were no highlights shown on the screens in the stadium of any Arsenal actions across the 90 minutes. Arsenal dominated the possession (64.4%), the shot counter (25 to 4), the touches in the opposition box (63 to 9), the xG (2.1 to 0.4), yet never truly looked like scoring. Arsenal’s high possession came not from their talents, but from Manchester United’s willingness surrender the midfield to them and mass rank their defence, even more so when Jayde Riviere was sent off on 65 minutes.
Arsenal had the freedom to lay siege on the Red Devils’ penalty area for the near entirety of the contest, but became paralysed by a lethargy in their actions, with slow actions and a repetitive horseshoe passing shape, as they tried and failed to disrupt Manchester United’s disciplined defensive shape. The kryptonite of low blocks and uncertain forward play looked to have finally been laid to rest following Renée Slegers’ ascension to first team coach last season, but they have since returned with a vengeance, with this being Arsenal’s third 0-0 of the season, and their second against Manchester United.
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Players had little conviction in the final third, as though they’d been on an intense 10-minute session on the Waltzer and were still trying to get their bearings straight. Legs were aimlessly swung at balls, backed by hope rather than technique that they’d hit the back of the net. Frida Maanum’s scoop over the bar was a finish Johnny Wilkinson would have been proud of, whilst Alessia Russo’s air kick at a loose ball in the penalty area late on summarised the entire performance
There were no coherent passages of play, a lack of intelligent moves, minuscule amounts of imagination or thought to Arsenal’s play. Too many players were too close to each other, making it all too easy for Manchester United to cut out any space to play. The crowd were bored into a stupor by Arsenal repeated possession circulation and failed wide deliveries, only roaring with panic in the final minutes of injury time when it became abundantly clear that their side were about to sleepwalk into more dropped points. Arsenal played like a team that hadn’t kicked a ball for nearly three weeks (which indeed, they hadn’t), but the greater concern is that this isn’t simply just a one off.
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Same Team, Different Year
Since the shift to a winter league in 2017, Arsenal have won only four of their nine post-winter break WSL matches, and against no side higher than sixth in the table at the time. This is a norm that under three different managers Arsenal still have not been able to shake off, inexcusable for a club supposedly attempting to win the WSL. Arsenal have haemorrhaged an eye watering 13 points already this season, and sit ten points off the top after Manchester City’s 2-0 win against Everton, obliterating any faint, lingering title hopes. Top 3 is not a certainty either, with Manchester United only a point behind and Tottenham Hotspur now level after their 1-0 win over Leicester City.
The match was supposed to signify the dawn of the next era of Renée Slegers at Arsenal. As the teams marched out, the stadium announcer enthusiastically declared that she was ‘here to stay’ following the signing of her new contract. The triumph in Lisbon made this an inevitability, although the fact it has taken until January to confirm it is systematic of Arsenal’s continued sluggish approach to footballing operations.
But rather than looking new, it was more of the same. The same January blues, the same frustrations, the same players. In the starting XI, only Anneke Borbe and Olivia Smith differed from last season’s squad. The substitutions on 63 minutes, Stina Blackstenius for Frida Maanum and Caitlin Foord for Olivia Smith, were so textbook you could have penned them into the match report before kick-off. Smilla Holmberg’s brief cameo off the bench hinted at an exciting prospect for the rest of the season, but the earlier announcement of Jenna Nighswonger’s loan move to Aston Villa provided a reminder of how quickly new signings can be ostracised whilst the status quo is sustained.
Arsenal’s rebuild cannot be stalled any longer
This is a team who has failed to win the league in the last six seasons (soon to be seven), and yet the majority of the squad has remained relatively the same. Persistence with those who have failed to win the WSL has only led to further failure, and there is little appetite from the club to remedy this in the winter window, with Holmberg’s arrival likely to be the sole addition to the squad. The much-suggested grand rebuild of the team has been penned in the calendar for this summer, a huge gamble given Arsenal’s current precarious position in the league table, with a first non-Top 3 finish since 2014 now a genuine possibility.
Slegers has been backed to lead rebuild, having been given the managerial hot seat until 2029, although in truth, contract lengths for managers does not guarantee job security. Nevertheless, it will be a huge, and long overdue, undertaking. Several senior players’ contracts are now up, most of which must now be moved on and replaced. The failure to have done this last summer has led to this busted flush of a campaign, with too many having left their best form in showpiece finale at the Estádio José Alvalade. Arsenal are reportedly leading the race to sign Bayern Munich’s Georgia Stanway in the summer, an acquisition that would help rejuvenate Arsenal’s ageing midfield. But just one Lioness star will not remedy the situation. Jodie Taylor’s appointment as Arsenal Women’s first Director of Football, alleviating some of Clare Wheatley responsibilities, will hopefully improve operations at the club.
Despite the WSL title now being a write-off, Slegers still retains the backing of the club, the players and the fans. As her car waited at a red light outside the Tollington, she was loudly cheered by the pub’s patrons. Later this week, the club will release their long-awaited UWCL documentary, giving fans another chance to celebrate winning their second European Cup, and provide conclusive proof that Slegers has the capability to get Arsenal back to the top. But if defeating Barcelona showed Arsenal could win the WSL again on day, the season that has since followed would suggest that day is still a long way off.