by Andrew Crawsha
The Arsenal Ladies team play in the FA WSL League, games start on Wednesday 2 April with the (current) fixture list as follows :-
| Match | Date | Time | Location |
| Millwall Ladies v Arsenal; Fifth Round FA Cup | 22 March | 14:00 | The Den, Millwall |
| Notts County v Arsenal | 2 April | 19:30 | Meadow Lane StadiumNB this game will be broadcast live in UK on BT Sport |
| Quarter Final FA Cup | 12 April | TBA | TBA * |
| Arsenal v Bristol Academy | 15 April | 19:45 | Boreham Wood FC Meadow Park |
| Manchester City v Arsenal | 19 April | 14:00 | Manchester City Academy Stadium |
| Arsenal v Sunderland | 26 April | 14:00 | Boreham Wood FC Meadow Park |
| Chelsea v Arsenal | 30 April | 19:30 | Staines Town FC |
| Semi Final FA Cup | 3 May | TBA | TBA * |
| Bristol Academy v Arsenal | 9 May | 18:30 | Stoke Gifford Stadium |
| Arsenal v Liverpool | 12 July | 14:00 | Boreham Wood FC Meadow Park |
| Birmingham City v Arsenal | 19 July | 18:45 | Solihull Moors FC |
| Arsenal v WatfordFA WSL Continental Cup | 23 July | TBA | Boreham Wood FC Meadow Park |
| Arsenal v Notts County | 26 July | 14:00 | Boreham Wood FC Meadow Park |
| London Bees v ArsenalFA WSL Continental Cup | 29 July | 19:30 | TBA |
| FA Cup Final | 1 August | TBA | Wembley Stadium * |
| Arsenal v Manchester City | 9 August | 14:00 | Boreham Wood FC Meadow Park |
| Chelsea v ArsenalFA WSL Continental Cup | 16 August | 14:00 | Staines Town FC (TBC) |
| Arsenal v Chelsea | 23 August | 14:00 | Boreham Wood FC Meadow Park |
| Arsenal v Reading | 27 August | TBA | Boreham Wood FC Meadow Park |
| Millwall v Arsenal | 30 August | 14:00 | Beckenham FC (TBC) |
| Liverpool v Arsenal | 5 Sept | 17:30 | Select Security Stadium |
| Sunderland v Arsenal | 26 Sept | 18:30 | Hetton Centre |
| Arsenal v Birmingham City | 4 October | 14:00 | Boreham Wood FC Meadow Park |
Note * rows will depend on Arsenal progressing in the FA Cup (which we hold!)
The Ladies team is:-
Goal
1 Emma Byrne – Now 36 and has played for Arsenal for 13 years is approaching 300 games for Arsenal. Emma is a Northern Ireland international with more than 90 caps.
15 Siobhan Chamberlin – Age 32 and signed this year from Bristol. She is an England international.
Defenders
2 Alex Scott – 31 years old and in her third spell with Arsenal. An England international. Also a regular contributor to Arsenal.com for the Men’s Matchday Show (well worth watching if you can’t get to the game).
3 Emma Mitchell – 23 years old , a Scottish international. An Arsenal player since 2013.
5 Casey Stoney – 33 years old, England international in her second spell at Arsenal.
19 Jemma Rose – 23 years old, joined Arsenal in December 2014 from Bristol. A regular at U23 level for England and has been on the bench for the England senior squad.
Midfielders
8 Jordan Nobbs – 23 years old joined from Sunderland in 2010 capped for England at U17 and U19 level.
14 Leah Williamson – 18 years old and has been part of the Arsenal set-up from the age of 9. Has captained England at U15 and U17 level and has been selected at U19 level.
20 Caroline Weir – 20 years old and a Scottish international Joined in June 2013.
25 Jade Bailey – 20 years old, England U19 international and another product of the Arsenal Academy.
Vicky Losada – 24 years old and an ex-Barcelona captain.
Carla Humphrey – 17 years old and yet another Academy product (she has been there from age 8). An England Youth international and last season’s Development League player’s player of the year. Hopefully has a great future at the club.
Forwards
7 Lianne Sanderson – 27 years old and another Academy graduate. An England International she is back for her second spell at the club and looking to repeat her success of 2006/7 when she scored 40 goals in 41 appearances for Arsenal who won the Quadruple.
8 Danielle Carter – 22 years old, England international at U17 and U20 level she joined from Leyton Orient in 2009.
10 Kelly Smith MBE – Now 37, Kelly acts as both Player and Coach. Was awarded the MBE in 2008 for services to sport.
11 Rachel Yankey – 36 years old and (until recently) was the most capped English footballer (men and women). Another legend!
17 Natalia Pablos Sanchon – 30 years old and a Spanish international. Signed for Arsenal in December from Bristol
Chioma Ibogagu
The key Ladies Staff are :-
- Manager – Pedro Martinez Losa
- Assistant Player-Coach – Kelly Smith
- Lead Physio – Mary Shiels
The Ladies pre-season started in January with league fixtures to be played between April 2nd and October 4th. The season has a break in May and June due to the Ladies World Cup when the majority of our squad are expected to be involved in some capacity.
The squad is significantly different from last year with new faces Lianne Sanderson, Jemma Rose, Natalia Pablos Sanchon, Vicky Losada and Chimona Ubogagu arriving to replace the likes of Kinga and Ohno (who returned to Japan), Niamh Fahey (Chelsea), Ayisi (Birmingham) who have all departed.
Pre-season friendlies
Arsenal 4 Doncaster 1 – February 1
Two goals from Nobbs and one each for Sampson and Sanderson for Arsenal and one for Barker for Doncaster. A comfortable win for Arsenal
Milwall 0 Arsenal 3 – February 22nd
Goals from Carla Humphrey, Rachel Yankey and a screamer for Jordan Nobbs got Arsenal the points on a cold and windy day in Beckenham. Millwall did enough to keep Arsenal focussed, but were second best throughout. A very solid and professional Arsenal performance despite missing a number of players. The (female) referee had an excellent game, sorry don’t know her name.
Derby 0 Arsenal 5 – February 25th
Another comfortable victory with first half goals from Jordan Nobbs, Alex Scott and Natalia Pablos Sanchon. In the second half Substitute Chloe Kelly and Natalia with her second rounded out the scoring.
Arsenal 4 Yeovil 2 – March 15th
This game was ‘behind closed doors’ and apart from the score I haven’t been able to find out anything about the Arsenal performance. Yeovil scorers were Heatherson and Hill
A pre-season that has gone well, the forwards and midfielders are all scoring and we look comfortable at the back. Whilst none of the opposition teams have been from the top flight of English football, the team has done enough to suggest that they are ready for the more serious tests that await.
Jordan Nobbs has officially been named as the England Ladies Vice Captain, congratulations to her. She was one of four Arsenal Ladies in the England squad that won the international Cyprus Cup last week, beating Canada one-nil in the final which she captained.
Please note that all Arsenal Ladies home games are at the BorehamWood FC Meadow Park ground. Tickets are available on the door £6 or in advance £5 (there are half price concessions for U16 and O65s and family tickets for two adults and two U16s) Ladies season tickets are £40 or £20 concessions and cover all home games in the League, FA Women’s Cup and WSL Continental Cup.
Do go along, if you can, and watch some rather good football in summer rather than endlessly refresh your browser looking for the latest transfer rumour. You know we won’t sign them anyway!
The first competitive game of the Season is this coming Sunday in the FA Cup against Millwall Ladies at Millwall’s main stadium – the Den. Kick-off 14:00 and tickets £5 with £2 concessions.
BT Sport will be broadcasting some games live including our WSL season opener at Notts County so keep your eyes open for those.
Please also note that in addition to their page on the main Arsenal.com website the ladies have their own site, home page Arsenal Ladies FC Official Home Page, TheFA WSL
COYLG
Thanks Andrew for this excellent summary.
I do keep an eye on the ladies (that sounds dubious in a way 😉 ) and watch their matches even on streams when available.
A bit of a dip last season but after winning all and everything for so many years it had to happen. Here is hoping for a better season this time
Thanks for writing this Andrew.
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I am still looking for news about the racist cheering in Cyprus.
Maybe the Army and the FA are hoping it will go away?
The change of manager last season seemed to make a big positive impact on the team. Hopefully that will be carried forward into this campaign. Last year also saw a major turnover in our players. So far this year everything looks far calmer and more measured. I’m aiming to get to the Millwall game on Sunday and should have a summary later.
Gord,
I’m sure you’re right.
Gord, I’m sure you have seen this BBC report of the incident. http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/31778776.
It sounds unpleasant in the extreme, totally mindless and unnecessary!
Andrew, I read many different news reports about the sexist (sorry, not racist) chanting in Cyprus. It was apparent that all of the authors were working from the same set of data, and only differed in how they reduced the data to publishable length. Or that they just copied what someone else had worked on.
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It is disappointing that only Walter, yourself and me have commented. If people (typically children, not always) want to learn how to play football, they are much better watching women play. An obvious reason, is that women seldom play with an intent to injure or cripple. But women tend to be better technically (on the average).
The only negative I have noted, is that women tend to play in straight lines. That will change with coaching, and might be a limitation of the coaches they had when learning.
Oh, and they are predisposed to knee problems a bit more than men, because their hips are wider. This also leads to more broken tailbone injuries, but I don’t think broken tailbone happens much in football.
The Arsenal Ladies have been winning trophies while the men have been competing. The greatest sporting achievement by any football team in my opinion was the quadruple in 2006/7 when the Ryder Cup golfers pipped them to the BBC team sports trophy. The media have a lot to answer for not giving the Arsenal Ladies front page publication. The stats for the Arsenal Ladies that year was mind blowing. They were undefeated all season in all competitions and won all domestic matches (drawing only one UEFA match).
Gord – sorry but there are more curves in the womens game than in the mens!! They play better passing & technically a more skilful game than the men.
Menace, we almost agree. Most of the women’s football I’ve seen is Canada versus some other team. Maybe it is just Canada playing the straight line? I agree that the women are better technically, and better for people to watch if they are looking for examples.
The other interesting bit is that many of the players do not seem averse to coming back to the parent club a 2nd and even a 3rd time. Is it because Arsenal is a top club? Or is it because there aren’t that many great options? Or maybe something else?
Gord & Menace: Your idea of watching more women’s football is an interesting one. Not only coz maybe they play better but also there’ll be better reports writen about them all over instead of the tripe we get to read in men’s football. Utter tripe.
I wonder what I’d do for discussion if Untold wasn’t there.
I agree that women generally rely more on skill and technique, rather than strength and aggression. My observation has been that the game is slower than men’s, but none the worse for that. Certainly there are far fewer long balls (or aimless “hoofs”).
I want to know what really happened over the last two seasons!
Arsenal had points deducted/taken away because they played an unregistered player? It seems amazing that reading about this, it appeared to me that the authorities main concern was to get Northern teams the championship and entry into the CL.
And what was goin on/happened with the (Northern) woman who became manager, and then left?
Arsenal appear to classy to openly dispute the ruling about unregistered players (that’s my take),
Next thing you know. arsenal ladies will have different rules for fouls, etc?
Come on, help me out here!
It says something about Arsenal that both(female and male) teams did amazing things, things not yet repeated by others.
Let’s wish them both to go on and do even more extraordinary things indeed.
John
There doesn’t have to be a significant speed difference. Sure, if you look at world record pace for short sprints, the men are consistently a little faster. Back when I lived in Edmonton, one of the guys I played soccer (football) with, coached U14 girls as well, and his daughter was on that team. They went to a tournament in BC, and at this tournament was the boy who won U14 100m for the province of BC. She raced this boy, and beat him. Had the boy detrained significantly in 6 weeks or so (since the provincial tournament)? It’s possible.
Gord – these young Canadian boys must really have fun to lose that much pace!!!