Women’s Super league – Arsenal’s start to the season
By Andrew Crawshaw
The WSL is now well under way, all eight teams have played three games, here is the table :-
| Pld | Pts | W | D | L | F | A | G.D | Pts | |
| Chelsea | 3 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 9 |
| Arsenal | 3 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 7 |
| Sunderland | 3 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 6 |
| Man C | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Liverpool | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | -1 | 3 |
| Notts C | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -1 | 2 |
| Birmingham | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 2 |
| Bristol Ac | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 8 | -7 | 0 |
A good start for the two London teams, who seem to be the teams to beat, a perfect start for Chelsea and unbeaten for Arsenal.
Notts County v Arsenal 02 April (1 – 1)
This game was televised on BT Sport so I was able to watch it. In truth Arsenal were disappointing and struggled to produce very mush in the early stages. It was nor eal surprise when we fell behind to a well worked free kick about 25 yards out. A well ‘staged’ routine where one player moved towards the ball, was told off by a second player before the Ellen White hit the ball sideways to clear the wall and smash the ball into the net
Notts County Ladies vs Arsenal Ladies
Gradually Arsenal came back into the game and scored an equaliser well into the second half with Chioma Ubobagu getting her first for the club.
A hard fought for point!
Arsenal v Bristol Academy 15 April (2 – 0)
By all accounts a good game (and probably far better then the Fulham v Rotherham game I watched with a very good friend of mine who has been a Fulham supporter for over 40 years).
Arsenal took the lead with first half goals from Carla Humphrey and Vicky Losada (her first for the Club).
Arsenal switched back to their customary 4-3-3 system as the 4-4-2 diamond failed in the poor performance which ended in the 2-1 cup defeat to Chelsea. Chamberlain (GK), Carla Humphrey and Rachel Yankey all made their first starts of the season.
A bright first half saw Arsenal return to their pre-season form and prove too much for Bristol, who already look as though they will struggle at this level this season. No goals in the second half but no problems either for Arsenal.
Man City v Arsenal ladies Sun 19 April 2015 (0 – 1)
Chioma Ubogagu scored the only goal, somewhat against the run of play in the 35th minute, as Arsenal continued their impressive start to the league campaign on Sunday. Such a shame for the hosts who were in their new stadium in the City Football Academy for the first time (intended sarcasm).
The best chances in the opening exchanges came to City, Emma Byrne in the Arsenal Goal doing well to save from Nikita Parris, and Toni Duggan heading wide when unmarked in front of goal when she really should have scored. Three minutes later Ubogagu found space on the left hand touchline before nutmegging Lucy Bronze and finishing low beyond the City keeper, Alex Brooks.
Ten minutes into the second half there was an off-the-ball altercation between Arsenal’s Jade Bailey and Scott which resulted in a yellow card for Bailey and a red for Scott.
City came close to equalising in the closing stages with Parris hitting the post after cutting in from the right wing but Arsenal hung on for the win.
Arsenal’s next two games are at home (Boreham Wood) on Sunday at 14:00 against Sunderland and on Thursday next week away at Chelsea K.O. 19:30. Both are likely to be tough games and will go some way to sorting out the ‘pecking order’ at the top of the table.
COYLG
Thanks for the report Andrew.
Was Jill Scott’s head butt a real strike, or more like Wilshere got caught with a while ago? Alex Scott didn’t mention it in her writeup. But three games in, and ManCity caught with two of these doesn’t look promising for them.
Not a headbutt in the Zidane sense but a deliberate rubbing of foreheads and definite red card. She has been banned for three games. There is a reasonably comprehensive article including video clip on the BBC Sport pages. Needless to say the City Manager said it was out of character.
Andrew, on the last ref review thread, I put all the ref assignments which came out today.
Pity The U21 lost today, it looked like they came close to tieing the game.
I think Rich seen the game.