by Andrew Crawshaw
For most teams this will be their fourth game in the WSL, there are deferred games to be fitted in to the schedule later in the season.
How did I do with my predictions last week?
Aston Villa 1 v West Ham 2 – My prediction was a win for Aston Villa The big talking point was the flare up in injury time when West Ham’s Hawa Cissoko was dismissed for hitting an opponent. This was followed by West Ham manager Paul Konchesky and Aston Villa’s operations manager Jack Hopkins also being sent off. .
Everton 1 v Chelsea 3 – in line with my prediction that Chelsea would be too strong. Gio Queiroz came on as a 70th minute substitute but was unable to transform Everton’s fortunes
Manchester United 4 v Brighton 0 – A comfortable win for United as predicted
Manchester City 4 v Leicester 0 – I expected City to win and they did. Leicester look to be in trouble and facing a fight for survival
Tottenham 1 v Liverpool 0 – I expected a low-scoring draw so another one I got wrong. Since their opening fixture Liverpool seem to have struggled to find their rhythm in subsequent games.
Reading 0 v Arsenal 1 – I thought this would be a more comfortable win than it turned out to be. Nevertheless a win is three points.
This Week’s matches
Saturday 11:30 – Tottenham v Manchester City
I would expect City’s resurgence to continue as I expect them to have too much firepower for Spurs to cope with. They are likely to score two or more goals whilst Spurs struggle to score more than one against decent sides.
Saturday 12:30 – Aston Villa v Everton
A difficult result to call, next to each other in the table, both with 2 wins. Everton have played one game more but conceded more goals. I think a narrow win for Villa with both teams scoring.
Sunday 12:00 – Liverpool v Arsenal
Arsenal will come into this game brimming with confidence having thrashed the reigning European Champions 5 – 1 on Wednesday. Liverpool made a great start to their season beating Manchester City in their opening game but have rather stalled since.
On paper a comfortable win for Arsenal, but football isn’t played on paper. Nevertheless, our makeshift centre-back pairing of Lotte Wubben-Moy and Steph Catley seems to be developing well and our forward line is capable of scoring multiple goals in any game so I would hope that we will move ahead of Man United by the end of the weekend.
I wonder when Mana Iwabuchi will get pitch time, so far she hasn’t been called on. This might be a good game for her to remind us all why we signed her.
Expected starting squad
Manuella Zinsberger
Katie McCabe, Steph Catley, Lotte Wubben-Moy, laura Wienroither
Lia Wälti, Kim Little
Vivianne Miedema/Frida Maanum/Mana Iwabuchi (one of)
Beth Mead, Stina Blackstenius, Caitlin Foord
The game is live on BBC2 in the UK with the broadcast starting at 11:45
Sunday 15:00 Leicester v Manchester United
This should be a convincing win for United by more than 2 goals. They are scoring at over 3 goals per game, Leicester have only one goal in four games and are conceding more than 2 a game.
Sunday 15:00 West Ham v Reading
Should be a win for West Ham but probably only by a single goal. They will be hampered by the suspensions to striker Hawa Cissoko and their manager Paul Konchesky.
Sunday 18:45 Brighton v Chelsea
Chelsea are unlikely to slip up against Brighton, should win be more than 2 goals
Here is a reminder of the current WSL table
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
| 1 | Man United | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 9 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 9 | 9 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 9 |
| 4 | Aston Villa | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 6 |
| 5 | Everton | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 6 |
| 6 | West Ham | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | -2 | 6 |
| 7 | Spurs | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | -2 | 6 |
| 8 | Man City | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 3 |
| 9 | Liverpool | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | -3 | 3 |
| 10 | Brighton | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 9 | -7 | 3 |
| 11 | Reading | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 7 | -6 | 0 |
| 10 | Leicester | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 9 | -8 | 0 |
Arsenal’s next game is in the Champions League where we face FC Zurich Train at the Emirates. The match will kick off at 20:00. I would urge any of you who can get to the ground to do so and lend support to the team. I’ll be lending support remotely as I will be on holiday in the USA for the next two weeks. If any follower knows of a good place in New Orleans where I can join other Gooners please let me know in the comments.
Our performance this last Wednesday against Champions Lyon was quite stunning and I know you will be rewarded if you go.
Tickets are £12 or £6 concessions or £35/£17:50 for club-level seats. If a group of 10 or more of you want to go there is even a 15% discount on offer. Over 47,000 were in the ground for the Spurs game, it would be great if we could exceed 12,000 for this match.
Here is a link to the ticketing site. https://www.arsenal.com/tickets/women/2022-Oct-27/fc-zurich-frauen
Half time in the Spurs v City game and City have the lead thanks to a 41st minute Shaw header following a corner taken by Alex Greenwood. Spurs striker Ellie Brazil carried off on a stretcher after injuring herself as she made a tackle on Ellie Roebuck in the 3rd minute. There was something like a 5 or 6 minute delay in play. Best wishes to Ellie for aspeedy and complete recovery.
City ran out 3-0 winners as expected
The Villa v Everton was a narrow 1-0 win but to Everton rather than Villa as I expected. Gio came on for the last 20 minutes for Everton but didn’t affect the final score.
We kick off against Liverpool at 12:00, the game is on BBC2. I hope it willalso be on the plane infotainment system as I cross the Atlantic.