Three observations from Arsenal Women's pre-season friendlies
I always enjoy pre-season games because it is fun to try to work out the new things the team is trying to do going into the next season. Which issues are they trying to solve from last season? How are new players changing the dynamic? How are existing players tailoring their game?
You can only ever take trinkets from friendlies, there is an overriding fitness objective which means lots of changes and lots of disruptions. And the point of this article is to observe rather than judge. I am going to quickly run through a few things I noticed in the Charlton and Paris FC friendlies but the point is not to evangelise or venerate these developments at this stage. Anyway, here are a few things that caught my eye at Meadow Park last week.
Stanway in build-up
Arsenal have been heavily reliant on the trio of Williamson, Mariona and Kim Little in their build-up phase for some time now. The signing of Georgia Stanway very obviously adds another element and another dimension to how Arsenal build play. In the Paris FC and Charlton games, we consistently saw her dropping between the centre-halves, with Kim Little stationed just in front of her.
In the Paris FC game, the first time the ball comes to Misa Rodriguez (who will also form a crucial part of Arsenal’s build-up play, especially as she is left-footed), Williamson fans out to the right and Stanway immediately trots back to sit herself between Williamson and Wubben-Moy.
Little is sitting just ahead of her so Arsenal build in a 3-1-6, removing some of the historic dependence on Little and Mariona to build and then for Mariona in particular to have to run up the field and try to be Arsenal’s chief creator in the final third too. It also opens up new dimensions for Arsenal’s build-up.
Stanway is an excellent long and diagonal passer and Little and Mariona, for all their obvious qualities, do not really play long, raking passes to the same extent. Stanway immediately looks to hit Lisa Baum on the right wing. This also gives Arsenal two long passers in build-up in Williamson and Stanway and reduces the reliance on Leah in that respect as well.
Stanway’s long pass to Baum is cut out and when the clearance drops to Williamson, Stanway is again stationed between the centre-halves with Little in front to sweep up and to occupy some opponents.
But once play develops, Stanway moves forwards and Little mans the base of the midfield as a release valve and an insurance against counter attacks. I think we saw something very similar last season when Cooney-Cross came into the starting line-up before Christmas and when the Australian starts, she will play this role as a deep distributor who then moves up the pitch as play progresses.
In the two friendlies this week it's been Stanway dropping back between the centre-backs most often to receive. Excellent long and diagonal passer, slight change in Arsenal's build up. https://t.co/Zzb838iLZC
— Tim Stillman ⭐️⭐️ (@timstillman_) August 28, 2026
You can see how often this pattern repeats in the Charlton game in the linked compilation. I spoke to Yash Thakar about this on the Arsenal Women Arsecast earlier this summer and Yash also makes a strong point here about the purpose of using this build up method.
A similar way to how she was used at Bayern, helps create a +1 in the first line and with direct wingers opens up the vertical route immediately.
I remember us discussing this on the pod too. Going to be a transformative signing!
— Yash (@Odriozolite) August 28, 2026
Holmberg and Baum
In both the Paris and Charlton games, Arsenal started with 19-year-olds Smilla Holmberg and Lisa Baum on the right-hand side. The patterns between Holmberg and Baum were similar to existing ones we saw established between Mead and Fox in seasons past, less so Fox and Smith when they start together.
But what we most commonly saw was that one of Holmberg or Baum would stay on the touchline to stretch the pitch and one would move inside as a right-sided 10. We see this very early in the Paris FC game. Holmberg didn’t do much inverting last season having only arrived in January. But with a full pre-season, it seems she will be asked to do so this season.
Here we see her in-field and we can see the confusion this creates for Paris FC, they don’t know who should be picking her up and two Paris FC defenders are far too close together as a result.
Little accepts the decoy and uses the space to slip a ball in behind to Lisa Baum who is now in space. Part of the reason Baum impressed so much in both games is because Arsenal accessed her via different avenues. Either with Stanway’s diagonal passing from the base of midfield, or else through the rotations she made with Holmberg to create space in the channels. Both Baum and Holmberg regularly accessed these spaces.
Once again seeing Baum move inside quite centrally when the ball is on the left. pic.twitter.com/XvfpVKQahe
— Tim Stillman ⭐️⭐️ (@timstillman_) August 26, 2026
We saw this rotation flipped on its head a lot too. Often Lisa Baum would take up a very central position in build-up or when the ball was on the other side of the pitch, almost as a second striker, with Holmberg stationed right on the touchline to create width.
Holmberg inverting a lot early on, moving very central with Baum staying out on the touchline. pic.twitter.com/aCfsHFgqqv
— Tim Stillman ⭐️⭐️ (@timstillman_) August 23, 2026
In this image I took from the press box you can see one of the intentions of such a move, it drags the left-back way inside and leaves space for the player on the right to attack. With a player like Stanway in midfield, Arsenal are also better equipped to access the player on the wide right with diagonal passes.
pic.twitter.com/ELqShfuGMe
— Tim Stillman ⭐️⭐️ (@timstillman_) August 26, 2026
Shots fired
I promise this is the last time I will repeat this, but Arsenal drew six WSL games last season and scored nine fewer goals than champions Manchester City. The route to the title is to improve on both these statistics. Last week, I wrote about how Arsenal are trying to use increased athleticism and transitions. But there is also clearly an increased emphasis on good old fashioned ‘having a dig.’
In the Paris FC game we saw some rustiness I think, with players often taking one touch too many on the edge of the area in a sea of Paris FC bodies. After the Charlton game, Renee Slegers told us, ‘I think you saw some steps from the Paris game today, we had more shots and more end product, that is something we spoke about.’
We need to caveat the improvement from the Paris to the Charlton game with the quality of opposition. Paris FC are a regular Champions League team and Charlton have been promoted to the WSL this season after a 20-year absence. However, Arsenal did eventually win the Paris game with an Olivia Smith shimmy and shot. Against Charlton, Smith, Cooney-Cross and Maanum all scored from the edge of the area (or further back).
After the Charlton game, The Gooner fanzine’s Freddy Cardie asked Olivia Smith about the team taking on the shot more often this coming season. ‘That is something we spoke about, not being afraid to take a shot when you have it from outside the box, especially when you are playing against low blocks. The edge of the box was where the space was tonight so we took it.’
Baum, Cerci and Reuteler are all players capable of creating their own chances or else scoring from moments of chaos. But Maanum, Cooney-Cross, Smith and Stanway are all players capable of wellying one from range. Shot selection is important, a string of futile blocked shots is not the way to break down a low block. But The Gunners have some big shooters now and I think Slegers will encourage some liberty to take on the shot more often.