THE LOWDOWN
Arsenal face bottom of the table Leicester City in the WSL at Emirates Stadium on Wednesday evening. This is one of three games in hand that Arsenal have over Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City above them in the table. Arsenal are one point behind United, five points behind Chelsea and 11 points behind leaders Manchester City.
City’s surprise defeat at Brighton on Saturday has unexpectedly reprised the notion that Renee Slegers’ side could still yet nick the league title in the most unlikely circumstances. If they win their three games in hand at home to Leicester and away at Brighton and Villa they will be two points behind City with two games remaining.
This Leicester game has long had a red ring around it in the calendar, the original January date was never going to be possible with Arsenal’s involvement in the FIFA Champions Cup and it’s difficult to understand why the game took so long for WSL Football to reschedule.
With the Champions League semi-final second leg at Lyon on Saturday, rotation will be likely for this game. In truth, with Leicester adrift at the bottom of the table and reeling from a 5-1 defeat at London City Lionesses on Sunday, this would be the WSL fixture Arsenal would choose in these circumstances.
TEAM NEWS
The squad will be unchanged from Sunday with Chloe Kelly not yet recovered from a muscle strain. There is still hope she can be fit for the Lyon second leg. Steph Catley is still out with a calf injury and Beth Mead is still out due to personal reasons and Kyra Cooney-Cross is on compassionate leave. Manu Zinsberger, Katie Reid and Michelle Agyemang are out with ACL injuries.
Available squad
Goalkeepers: 13.Votikova 14.van Domselaar 28.Borbe 40.Williams
Defenders: 2.Fox 3.Wubben-Moy 5.L.Codina 6.Williamson 11.McCabe 24.Hinds 31.Holmberg
Midfielders: 8.Mariona 10.Little 12.L.Maanum 21.Pelova
Forwards: 15.Smith 19.Foord 23.Russo 25.Blackstenius
A WORD FROM THE BOSS
‘We have full trust in the squad that when these short turnarounds come, everybody’s ready. And I think we’ve had a lot of players involved lately, whether that’s to start or finish. And that’s one of our big strengths in the squad. And that’s the way we want to work. So we’ll have players ready for tomorrow.
‘We’re in the here and now. It’s about tomorrow. We have a very important game against Leicester, so that’s what we’re focused on. We are always strong. And that’s, again, the strength of our squad, the power of our togetherness, the different qualities and the different tools that we have in the squad. So we have to start well, we have to finish well, and we have to look at what Leicester is going to do.
‘I think it’s a midweek game for them as well. They don’t do much of this to see how they manage, how they’re going to manage this from start to finish. We won’t know until tomorrow. So we plan for scenarios. And again, I think that’s been a super strength of ours, how we start and finish games.’
LAST TIME OUT
When the teams met at the King Power Stadium in November, Arsenal ran out 4-1 winners thanks to goals from Alessia Russo, a Kees own goal and a brace from Stina Blackstenius. Mouchon scored a consolation for Leicester.
THE OPPOSITION
If Leicester lose at the Emirates, they will be confirmed at the bottom of the table with two games to spare. This season, with the league set to expand by two teams next season, that fact will not automatically consign them to relegation, instead it means they will play a tense playoff match against the team that finishes 3rd in WSL2.
In truth, Leicester have looked set for the drop for the entire season. With the men’s team now relegated to League One and in poor shape financially, one cannot help but fear for Leicester’s WSL future even if they do get a reprieve this season. The Foxes have been in the top-flight since the 2021-22 season.
The Foxes have been through managerial turmoil in recent years. Willie Kirk was sacked in March 2024 after a club investigation found, ‘breached the team’s code of conduct to a degree that makes his position untenable.’ French coach Amandine Miquel was surprisingly sacked earlier this season and replaced by experienced coach Rick Passmoor.
PLAYER TO WATCH
I suspect that Arsenal will rotate their goalkeeper and ¾ of their back four for this game because their depth allows for it. Further forwards, there is less for Arsenal to play with with Mead and Kelly still unavailable. But Frida Maanum will almost certainly start this game as pretty much the only attacking player Slegers can introduce from Sunday’s bench.
The continued improvement of Stina Blackstenius has meant that Russo has been played in a deeper role behind the Swede and Maanum has fallen out of the starting line-up as a result. The Norwegian has three goals and one assist in the WSL this season but having scored all three of those goals in the first four WSL games it has been an underwhelming return since.
We all know Frida is capable of better and this is likely to offer a rare opportunity for her to restake her claim as a starter. She scored twice against Leuven in the Champions League and against ASFAR in the FIFA Champions Cup. Realistically, this game ought to give Maanum a strong opportunity to boost her numbers and remind the manager of her ability.
MY PREDICTED LINE UP
Subs: 2.Fox 6.Williamson 10.Little 11.McCabe 13.Votikova 14.van Domselaar 23.Russo 44.Harwood
HOW TO CATCH THE GAME
The game takes place at Emirates Stadium at 7pm on Wednesday evening and will be broadcast live on Sky Sports in the UK. Full global listings for the fixture can be found here.
COMING UP
We will have ever so slightly reduced coverage for this game since I am in Madrid for the men’s Champions League semi-final! We will still have Aidan Gibson’s on the whistle match report at full-time but, on this occasion, we won’t have a transcript of Renee Slegers’ post-match press conference. I will be flying from Madrid to Lyon on Friday, however and normal service will resume!
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