After losing their league opener versus Liverpool and being knocked out of the Champions League in qualifying, pressure is on Jonas Eidevall's side
If you are a title-chasing team in the Women’s Super League – Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City or Manchester United – you cannot really afford to drop points against those below you given how rarely it happens in the division. Last season, for example, those four only failed to win against the other eight teams in the WSL on six occasions between them. But last weekend it happened in the first round of fixtures of the new campaign, with Arsenal stunned by Liverpool in a 1-0 defeat at the Emirates.
Last season, the Reds caused another opening-weekend upset when, as a newly-promoted side, they came from a goal down to defeat champions Chelsea 2-1. The Blues, though, still went on to win the WSL title, something that will give Arsenal fans hope after a difficult result.
But this doesn’t feel the same. Few wouldn’t have had faith that a Chelsea team stacked with so much talent and experience could bounce back – and they did immediately with an impressive 2-0 win over Man City. For Arsenal, it’s hard to be as hopeful and optimistic. After all, the Gunners started this new campaign by suffering elimination from the Women’s Champions League in the first qualifying round.
Facing an extremely tough trip to Leigh to face Manchester United on Friday night, another difficult job in hosting a Rachel Daly-led Aston Villa the week after and still without a handful of world-class stars for several weeks, if not months, Arsenal must draw a line under these early season issues as soon as possible – or their season could be over before it has even begun.
GettyLiverpool cause a shock
When 54,115 fans packed into the Emirates Stadium last Sunday, setting a new WSL record attendance, there was an air of expectancy. Arsenal had endured a very difficult September, losing in the first round of European qualifying, but those games came extremely soon after the Women’s World Cup and so head coach Jonas Eidevall had barely had any time with his players beforehand.
Defeat against Paris FC was a disappointing and underwhelming outcome, there’s no hiding from that, but it wasn’t beyond comprehension. After all, the last two years have seen Man City eliminated in the qualifying rounds, with the same issue in terms of preparation at least part of the reason why.
The start of the new WSL season gave the Gunners a great chance to bounce back. They’d had a little more time, at least, and they were at home, playing in front of a huge crowd that was rooting almost exclusively for them. The immaculate Emirates pitch would certainly suit their style of play and their opponents, Liverpool, hadn’t won away from home in the league since October 2022. Arsenal were overwhelming favourites.
But football is unpredictable and few would have anticipated the end result. The visitors had just two shots on target all afternoon but, crucially, one of those found the back of the net in the 48th minute, when Miri Taylor’s side-footed finish capped off great work by Marie Hobinger and Missy Bo Kearns. Liverpool were 1-0 up.
Defensively, the Reds did brilliantly to frustrate their hosts. They stopped Arsenal from playing in midfield, forced them to go wide and put crosses into the box – and that suited Liverpool to a tee because their back three were imperious in thwarting that threat. Even in the early stages when the Gunners were able to play a little more as they’d want, they constantly found defenders in the way of shots.
Unable to play in the areas they desired, unable to create opportunities from the spaces they were afforded and unable to sustain serious pressure on a committed and disciplined Liverpool team, Arsenal’s opening weekend ended in defeat.
AdvertisementGettyWorryingly simple
There were a number of things in this defeat for Arsenal that will just naturally improve, such as the chemistry between new players and the execution of passes, which was extremely sloppy but not generally surprising given a disrupted pre-season.
But fans will be concerned at how easily Liverpool stopped them playing. The Reds clogged up the midfield and the Gunners were almost entirely ineffective as a result.
“We wanted to make sure we dominated centrally,” Reds boss Matt Beard said after the game. “They like to get it into midfield, get it back and then go around you. We stopped that from happening so they had to go wide.”
How many of Arsenal’s future opponents will watch what Liverpool did and try to replicate it? Probably quite a few. It’s up to Eidevall, whose new three-year contract was announced off the back of the defeat, to make sure his players are equipped to deal with that game plan going forward.
Getty ImagesWeaknesses in the system
But there were other concerns for Arsenal, too. Noelle Maritz’s unavailability at right-back was part of the reason why they set up in a back three, having not brought in another option in the position during the window, while Laura Wienroither, also a right-back, is to miss most of the season due to injury.
It’s a system that the Gunners are not massively well-versed in. It was used at times last season by Eidevall but never in a way that blew anyone away, with it often stopping their own centre-backs from coming forward with the ball and breaking lines.
Towards the end of the campaign, it was used more to cover for a huge injury list, one that eventually included Beth Mead, Vivianne Miedema, Leah Williamson, Caitlin Foord, Lina Hurtig, Kim Little and Wienroither. Mead, Miedema, Williamson and Wienroither are all still sidelined after suffering ACL ruptures.
Against Liverpool, the back three set-up meant the gaps between Little and Lia Walti in the deeper midfield positions, and Foord and Frida Maanum in the inverted winger roles were huge. This didn’t help in terms of trying to dominate centrally.
Would a flat back four with a makeshift right-back have been a better option, especially with how much Arsenal expected to be, and were, on the front foot? Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but Eidevall and his team certainly need to work on the back three if it’s going to be an effective Plan B.
GettyLittle time to work with
There are reasons why Arsenal haven’t had much time to develop things like this, though. It was only 17 days after the 2023 Women’s World Cup final when the Gunners had to play their first Champions League qualifier, which is a prime example of the problems that exist within the women’s football calendar.
It’s something that Man City have had to deal with the last couple of seasons when it comes to the turnaround between a major tournament and European qualification, and unsuccessfully so. The gap hardly allows for any form of pre-season, which is particularly concerning for the health of players, especially when you consider the ACL crisis the women’s game is currently dealing with.
“I counted on Saturday, we had our 10th training session with every player in the last four months,” Eidevall said after the defeat to Liverpool. “That is not great, but that is where we are at.” In stark contrast, Beard explained how “a lot” of the tactical work his team had done went on in pre-season, with the Reds missing fewer players during the World Cup.
Eidevall was keen to emphasise that he wasn’t using the lack of preparation with the whole squad as an excuse – and it’s something that all of the WSL’s title contenders have to deal with to some degree – but it is worth noting.