by Andrew Crawshaw
Arsenal Women return to League action today in an early kick-off at Meadow Park Borehamwood against Liverpool. Kick-off was at 12:30 and the game is live on UK television so no excuses not to watch it. It is on the BBC Sport Online or on television via the Red Button or alternatively on the BBC Sport App.
Liverpool have had a very large proportion of last year’s team poached by other clubs, particularly the new Manchester United team who didn’t have a team at all last year and it is difficult to know how much of a threat they will be this year. In previous seasons they were usually a good but unspectacular side. Their results so far this season have been disappointing, they were beaten by Man United in their opening Continental Tyres Cup group game and also lost a pre season friendly against third tier Blackburn Rovers.
Our manager Joe Montemurro is having none of it being an easy game though as he noted in his interview with Arsenal.com :-
“I’m expecting a very tough challenge…. We have to respect Liverpool, it’s a big occasion and obviously the rivalry is huge. We have to respect the (new) coach and the players they have brought in, and we believe it’s going to be a very, very difficult game….. I believe they’ll be proactive, direct, organised and very aggressive in all areas of the field. Their coach (Neil Redfern) is a clever man and he understands the importance of organisation”
This is a match I would very much expect us to win and with the two other top teams, Chelsea playing Manchester City in a 14:00 kickoff a real opportunity to start off with points over at least one of them. There are only two Champions League places on offer each year and we agonisingly missed the second by a single point last season having made up something like 9 points over City in the second half of the season after a dreadful opening period. This year we must be targetting second as an absolute minimum and there is no real reason why we shouldn’t push all season for first spot.
I would expect our team to be
Sari Van Veenendaal (GK)
Dominique Bloodworth (Nee Janssen), Louise Quinn, Leah Williamson, Emma Mitchell
Lia Walti
Kim Little (C), Jordan Nobbs
Beth Mead, Vivianne Miedema, Katie McCabe
Subs
Pauline Peyraud-Magnin (GK), Jessica Samuelsson, Lisa Evans, Danielle Van de Donk, Ava Kuyken
Hopefully I will be able to post updates at intervals as the game progresses
COYG
Sorry folks, I didn’t get to Borehamwood. The traffic in South London was appalling so returned home to watch it on the Red Button. I missed the first 12 minutes during which time Miedema scored our first goal.
The second half has just started with Arsenal leading by four goals to nil. Miedema has scored two and assisted for the others.
Perrault-Magnin is in goal and made a great save in the first half to tip a shot over the bar
60 minutes in and the game has gone a bit flat. .
Just as I write that Miedema nearly gets her third but a late block saw it go out for a corner.
I must say there is a good noise from the supporters
Arsenal sub. Samuelsson on
Ava Kuyken on for Kim Little with 8 minutes to go. Still four nil
90th Minute and Miedema gets her Hattrick. An indirect free kick awarded when the Liverpool keeper picked up a back pass to prevent a Miedema tap in. The ball was tapped to her and she hit a rocket high into the net.
Whistle gone with nothing further of note happening
A great result which sets down a marker for Chelsea and City
Congratulations to the women’s team. It was nice to see how many medja articles about this game that there were.
Great outing for the Ladies. with Chelsea and City playing out a draw, that’s a good two points ahead of our strongest competitors. Congratulations to the ladies. COYG!
01 Arsenal _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1 _ _1 _ _0 _ _0 _ _5 _ _0 _ _ 5 _ _3
02 Reading _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1 _ _1 _ _0 _ _0 _ _4 _ _0 _ _ 4 _ _3
03 Birmingham City _ _ _ _ _ 1 _ _1 _ _0 _ _0 _ _1 _ _0 _ _ 1 _ _3
04 Bristol City _ _ _ _ _ _ _1 _ _1 _ _0 _ _0 _ _1 _ _0 _ _ 1 _ _3
05 Chelsea _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1 _ _0 _ _1 _ _0 _ _0 _ _0 _ _ 0 _ _1
06 Manchester City _ _ _ _ _ 1 _ _0 _ _1 _ _0 _ _0 _ _0 _ _ 0 _ _1
07 WHam United _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 0 _ _0 _ _0 _ _0 _ _0 _ _0 _ _ 0 _ _0
08 Brighton and Hove Albion _1 _ _0 _ _0 _ _1 _ _0 _ _1 _ _-1 _ _0
09 Everton _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1 _ _0 _ _0 _ _1 _ _0 _ _1 _ _-1 _ _0
10 Yeovil Town _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1 _ _0 _ _0 _ _1 _ _0 _ _4 _ _-4 _ _0
11 Liverpool _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1 _ _0 _ _0 _ _1 _ _0 _ _5 _ _-5 _ _0
Kind of a trivial set of standings, as only a single game has taken place, with WHam not yet playing. Arsenal should be expected to do well, and did. I am not sure how to read the Reading v Yeovil Town result. Is Reading that strong? Is Yeovil that weak? Just an unlucky day for Yeovil Town? Chelsea v Manchester City was a scoreless draw. As Chelsea nd Manchester City are expected to be strong, some kind of draw was always a likely result, but a scoreless draw?
My sincere apologies to Andrew and readers for not getting the preview up on time. Thanks Andrew for publishing the details – and really sorry the traffic did for you.
Thanks for battling on. Really appreciated it.
Boycott online gooner. Agenda driven scum.
@Gord,
Yeovil were bottom of the table last year not winning a game all season. They are a side with little goals oring threat and I fear will struggle in the relegation zone all season.
It is very difficult to get a picture of the clubs relative strengths this season following the complete upheaval caused by the latest overhaul of the game by the FA.
Manchester United who have been out of the game for 13 years or so were allowed to rejoin in the second, Championship, division and have recruited a full team from scratch to the great detriment of the WSL clubs in the North West. Man City have also been busy buying players to stave off our push for one of the top two slots this season and earn Champions League football.
Our recruitment was entirely of European Internationals, there being no top UK talent available. Our second string players have largely been poached by Championship sides leaving us with a threadbare squad. Today we had just four substitutes, a goalkeeper, defender, midfielder and a striker.
The sooner we start getting back our long term injured players the better but none are expected before October at the earliest. we have probably the best starting lineup in the division but lack any real strength in depth.
reading are probably the fourth best club in the WSL, at least they were last year and seem to have been able to hang onto most of their better players, they will be there or thereabouts come season end and will threaten in the cups.
In the Championship man United posted a 12-0 win away at Aston Villa. There were also wins for Spurs over London Bees (2 – 1), Leicester City at Crystal Palace (0 – 2) and Lewes away at Millwall (0 – 3).
Lewes are our opponents next week in the Continental Cup when we travel to their wonderfully named Dripping Pan ground. Lewes is just outside Brighton so hopefully driving south will be easier than trying to go North today.
It’s a great news that gladen our hearts to know that the Arsenal Ladies have walloped Liverpool comprehensively today in the WSL in their push to win the WSL Title this season. Our hopes and prayers for them is to see them keep on walloping any team that comes their ways during the campaign.
So far, I have managed to monitor the international break games stating and the coming on from the substitutes bench substitution appearances the 7 Gunners of: Ramsey, Aubameyang, Welbeck, Mkhitaryan, Xhaka, Mustafi and Torreira have each had so far in official and friendly games for their various countries during this international break. But I don’t know all their exploits during the break.
Can the UA help me out to publish the these 7 Gunners exploits in terms and the starting, appearance from the bench, goals scoring, goals scoring assist; and injury scares for Arsenal each Gunner has had when the international matches break comes to end on Tuesday before Arsenal play against Newcastle in the PL at away on Saturday?
Making available this information will help to guide me in my starts and bench making for our Newcastle match.
Thanks.
Money would seemingly want Chelsea and ManCity to be the top two teams, and get the Champions League spots. Arsenal would want to say something about that. But I wonder about that scoreless draw of Chelsea v ManCity. They both parked the bus? Or was one team afraid of getting into a shoot out with the other?
Maybe there are some North American (Australia? New Zealand?) players that a person could pick up? Four subs is easy to use up. Especially if a referee decides to look the other way. Maybe Mike Dean is getting read to do a Womens game? Do you think he would notice if we slipped in Mertesacker as a central defender? 🙂
Please explain why
Andrew
Daily Cannon observed some shuffling in the “backroom” staff at Arsenal, it seems to have mostly to do with the youth program. Possibly it is of interest.
http://dailycannon.com/2018/09/arsenal-detail-extensive-changes-to-coaching-setup/
To me, it is just a bunch of observations, no analysis.
The last paragraph compares the makeup of the backroom staff to the racial content of London. Again, no analysis to speak of.
Nice writeup about women’s football from a Yorkshire point of view.
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/football/women-s-football-united-in-bid-to-close-the-gap-and-develop-its-own-talent-pool-1-9344926