THE LOWDOWN
Arsenal welcome Aston Villa to Emirates Stadium on Sunday at 12noon in the WSL. Renee Slegers’ side earned back-to-back victories for the first time this season with a 2-1 win over Spurs in the North London derby followed by a consummate 3-0 victory over Benfica in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
While the victory at Spurs was won with gritted teeth and matted hair, Wednesday night’s performance against Benfica was far more fluent and finessed. Arsenal simply have to go on a good run now having surrendered so many points already this season and they have to take the energy and enthusiasm of the last two games into this encounter.
Match stats for Arsenal Women v SL Benfica W: Possession 63% - 37%, Total shots 31 - 5, Shots on target 15 - 2, Shots off target 8 - 3, Shots inside box 19 - 2, Big chances 4 - 1, Corners 12 - 3, Offsides 3 - 2, Fouls 6 - 13, Yellow cards 0 - 1, Saves 2 - 11, Passes 508 - 298, Pass accuracy 87% - 76%, Tackles 19 - 27, Interceptions 13 - 13.
Match stats for Arsenal Women v SL Benfica W: Possession 63% - 37%, Total shots 31 - 5, Shots on target 15 - 2, Shots off target 8 - 3, Shots inside box 19 - 2, Big chances 4 - 1, Corners 12 - 3, Offsides 3 - 2, Fouls 6 - 13, Yellow cards 0 - 1, Saves 2 - 11, Passes 508 - 298, Pass accuracy 87% - 76%, Tackles 19 - 27, Interceptions 13 - 13.
Last season, Villa came to the Emirates and forced one of Arsenal’s six damaging league draws with a late equaliser after an insipid display. The Gunners will want to continue to ride the wave they have just about clambered onto and water the green shoots of confidence and vivacity we saw on Wednesday.
Alessia Russo bagged the winner at Spurs and helped herself to a Champions League hat-trick on Wednesday, she is fast becoming Arsenal’s ‘franchise player’ if she isn’t already. A front two of Smith and Russo has shown some positive signs in the last two games, with Hinds and Foord stablising the left side of the team. It will be interesting to see how far Slegers sticks with some of these burgeoning stabilisers on Sunday.
TEAM NEWS
Katie Reid has injured her ankle in training and will miss the remainder of this year at a minimum, the 20-year-old was back in full training after an ACL injury. Frida Maanum has a chance to be in the squad after a quad injury. Mariona (hamstring), Agyemang (knee), Kelly (hamstring) and Cerci (knee) are all out. Daphne van Domselaar is close to a return but this game may come too early for her.
Available squad
Goalkeepers: 16.Misa 28.Borbe 40.Damm
Defenders: 2.Fox 3.Wubben-Moy 5.De Almeida 6.Williamson 7.Catley 22.O.Batlle 24.Hinds 31.Holmberg
Midfielders: 4.Stanway 10.Little 12.L.Maanum 14.Reuteler 32.Cooney-Cross
Forwards: 9.Foord 11.Smith 19.Baum 23.Russo 25.Blackstenius
Unavailable: 1.van Domselaar 8.Mariona 17.Agyemang 18.Kelly 26.Reid 29.Cerci
A WORD FROM THE BOSS
‘Knowing from his (Villa manager Brian Sorensen) Everton team, I think it was always hard to play against Natalia [Arroyo]’s Aston Villa team as well. They would pose a lot of questions. Now, of course, with Brian, they’ve had a really good start. I think it’s four wins and a draw. They won last night through penalties.
‘We remember the game last year, how it was difficult at Emirates for us at home. The away game was good, it was dominant. We have to be prepared, we have to be humble. What they’re going to do, it’s always a guessing game. Of course, they’re in a transition now and they’ve changed their system. Let’s see what they do against us.
‘Very often it happens that teams do something different against us. Let’s see what their game plan is. We have to focus on ourselves and keep building on our last performance. It’s good, it’s two good wins. It was Arsenal, this was us last night, and now we have to back it up with the next game coming up against Villa.’
LAST TIME OUT
When the teams last met in May at Villa Park, Arsenal ran out 3-0 winners with a brace from Russo and a goal from Frida Maanum. In this fixture at the Emirates last season, Frida Maanum’s early goal was cancelled out by a stoppage time equaliser from Paula Tomas.
THE OPPOSITION
After an underwhelming start to the season, Spanish coach Natalia Arroyo was sacked at the end of September having lost two and drawn two of their opening four games (though one of their draws was at Stamford Bridge). Former Everton manager Brian Sorensen had been installed as Villa’s Technical Director last season and has taken the role on an interim basis until the end of the season.
Villa are unbeaten since Sorensen took over; they have drawn with Crystal Palace but beaten Liverpool and Everton, as well as notching a Subway Player’s Cup win against Burnley and, on Wednesday night, they beat Birmingham on penalties in the same competition. While not sparkling yet, their form has corrected.
Villa have moved to a 3421 formation that Sorensen often deployed at Everton with Wilms and Maritz as wing-backs, allowing Chastity Grant to push up the pitch. Sorensen’s teams tend to like to possess the ball, draw the press and then quickly play in behind to pacy wide forwards.
PLAYER TO WATCH
Caitlin Foord won Player of the Match in last weekend’s North London Derby and also played very well in Wednesday’s game against Benfica. Her partnership with Taylor Hinds on the left hand side has brought greater defensive security. Caitlin’s qualities have also provided a nice blend with Smith as a centre-forward and Russo in behind.
Arsenal also needed leadership to guide them out of their rough patch and Foord’s unwavering commitment and willingness to compete for duels has given Arsenal an injection of intensity at a time when confidence was sagging. Sometimes you have to punch your way out of a rut and few players swing like Caitlin.
Slegers was full of praise for Foord in her pre-match press conference too, ‘The way she plays is contagious and she’s been so important for us in that game and with that performance and everything she brought and everything we expected, we needed against Benfica, because we expected a fight there as well. We wanted her to be on a pitch again and she had a great 90 minutes again for us.’
MY PREDICTED LINE UP
Subs: 3.Wubben-Moy 5.De Almeida 10.Little 12.L.Maanum 14.Reuteler 22.O.Batlle 25.Blackstenius 28.Borbe 31.Holmberg
HOW TO CATCH THE GAME
The match takes place at Emirates Stadium at 12noon on Sunday, it will be shown live on Sky Sports in the UK. Full global listings are available here.
COMING UP
Sunday
• Line-ups posted an hour before kickoff
• Aidan Gibson’s on the whistle match report
• Every word of Renee Slegers’ post-match press conference
• Opinion piece from the game
Monday
• Arsenal Women Arsecast with Tim and Jamie analysing the game
• Potentially a tactical analysis piece
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