The Arsenal Ladies Season Preview

by Andrew Crawshaw

Unlike the men, the Ladies season starts on Sunday 20 March and runs through summer to early November.  There are thee competitions, the WSL (Womens Super League), the FA Women’s Cup,and the FA WSL Continental Cup.

Our first game of the season is in the FA Women’s Cup where we are away to Birmingham City Ladies on Sunday 20 March in the last 16 round.  The Quarter final is scheduled for Sun 3 April, Semi-Finals on Sun 17 April and the final on Sat 14 May.  The Competition is a straightforward knockout format.

The Continental Cup starts on Sunday 3 July – this is “OUR” Cup we have been in every final winning all but one.

The WSL is a League competition with two divisions.  We are in the top division.  Last Season Chelsea won the league (with 32 points from 14 games) from Manchester City (30) and we were third with 27 points.  Sunderland were fourth on 20 points.  It is probable that the same three teams will be fighting for the honours again this year.

The other teams are :- Birmingham City, Chelsea, Doncaster Rovers, Liverpool, Manchester City, Notts County, Reading and Sunderland.  The second division has 10 clubs.  Both last season and this year will see two teams being promoted to the first division and one relegated bring the first division to 10 clubs for the start of the 2016-17 season.

Our fixture list in the WSL this year is

Date and time	Opponent	Home / Away
Wed 23 March @ 19:47	Reading	H
Mon 28 March @ 15:00	Man City	A
Thu 21 Apr @ 19:45	Chelsea	H
Wed 27 Apr @ 19:45	Reading	A
Sun 1 May @ 14:00	Birmingham City	H
Sat 21 May @ 18:30	Doncaster Rovers	A
Sun 26 June @ 14:00	Sunderland	H
Wed 29 June @ 19:45	Birmingham City	A
Sun 10 July @ 14:00	Notts County	H
Sun 17 July @ 14:00	Chelsea	A
Sat 23 July @ 18:00	Sunderland	A
Sun 31 July @ 14:00	Liverpool	H
Sun 28 Aug @ 17:00	Notts County	A
Sun 11 Sept @ 14:00	Man City	H
Sun 30 Oct @ 14:00	Doncaster Rovers	H
Sun 6 Nov @ 18:00	Liverpool	A

Home games are at Manor Park, Borehamwood.  It is well served by public transport and about 20 minutes walk from Elstree and Borehamwood station.  Tickets are £6 for adults, £3 for concessions or £15 for a family ticket (two adults and two children under 16).  Season tickets are available which offer a better price if you are intending to go to all home games.  You can pay on the gate (but be prepared for a longish wait there aren’t enough gates for a large crowd), on-line or by phone.

The crowd atmosphere is friendly and there are always activities for younger children.  It is a great way of introducing youngsters to the game without any of the language and attitudes that can be associated with the senior men’s game.  If you can manage a game or two please do so, I’m sure that you won’t be disappointed (and it won’t break the bank either).  There are plenty of places to get something before or after the game along Borehamwood High Street which is only a few minutes walk and snacks etc are available from the Lunch Box inside the ground but queues can be quite long.

Who is in the Arsenal Squad

Goalkeepers

Squad No		DoB
1	Emma Byrne	14/6/1979	Emma is a Northern Ireland international with more than 90 caps.  This will be her 13th season with the Club
13	Sari van Veenendaal	03/04/1990	A Dutch International, Sari joined Arsenal from FC Twente last season

Defenders

Squad No		DoB
2	Alex Scott	14/10/1984	Alex is an attacking right back and a product of our youth academy.  Now back with the club for a third spell.  Was captain last year and is an England International
3	Emma Mitchell	13/9/1992	Emma is a Scottish international and a product of Glasgow City’s academy
5	Casey Stoney	13/05/1982	An England International with more than 100 caps, Casey began her career with Arsenal in 1999.  She rejoined the club in 2014.
12	Vyan Simpson	02/07/1996	Vyan joined us in 2011 from Charlton and progressed throigh the Arsenal Ladies Centre of Excellence programme.  She is an England youth international
19	Jemma Rose	19/01/1992	Jemma has been capped for England at U23 level and has been part of the sesior squad.  She joined Arsenal in 2014 from Bristol City
22	Josephine Henning	08/09/1989	An experienced German international and four times ladies Bundesliga title holder.  This is her first season with the club

Midfielders

Squad No		DoB
4	Fara Williams MBE	25/1/1984	Farah is the most capped English Footballer on 150 and counting.  She is probably our major signing this year joining us from Liverpool.  A real star player
6	Vicky Losada	05/03/1991	One of a trio of Spanish Internationals Vicky is a former Barça captain.  This will be her second year with the club
8	Jordan Nobbs	08/12/1992	Captain of England at U17 level, Jordan is an exciting attacking midfielder.  She missed much of last season through injury but returned towards the end of the season
14	Leah Williamson	29/3/1997	Leah has been with Arsenal from age 9.  She is an England U19 international.  This will be her first year as part of the full first team squad.
17	Marta Corredera	08/08/1991	The Second of the Spanish internationals (and, with Alex Scott, one of my favourite players on the team)  Another ex Barça player.
20	Dominique Janssen	17/01/1995	Our second Dutch player and another full international.  Dominique joined last season.
21	Danielle Van de Donk	05/08/1991	Our third Dutch international player, Danielle joins us this year from Swedish club Göteborg

Forwards

Squad No		DoB
7	Natalia Pablos Sanchon	15/10/1985	Our third Spanish international Natalia is in her second year.  She joined from Bristol where she had one year.  prior to that she had 13 seasons with Rayo Vallecano scoring over 300 goals.
9	Danielle Carter	18/5/1993	A powerful driving centre forward, Danielle joined us in 2009 from Leyton Orient.  An England Youth International, her first full cap can’t be far away.
10	Kelly Smith MBE	29/10/1978	A highly experienced England International with well over 100 caps, Kelly has played football all over the world.  Awarded an MBE in 2008.  Kelly is both player and assistant coach
11	Rachel Yankey MBE	01/11/1979	Rachel is in her 8th season of her second stint with the club.  Another member of the England 100 plus club she was awarded her MBE in 2005.  Could still teach Theo a thing or two about  playing on the wing
15	Katie McCabe	01/09/1995	An Ireland international Katie joined us this year  from Irish side Shelbourne Ladies.
18	Chloe Kelly	05/01/1998	Another product of our youth team set-up, Chloe made an impact on her first start scoring in 22 minutes against Watford.  England captain at U17 level.

I can’t think of any other football squad with three MBEs in it.  We have what looks to be a great combination of experience and youthful endeavour and a season that I am really looking forward to.

Manager Pedro Martinez Losa

Pedro was appointed manager in August 2014 from Western New York Flash in the US National Women’s League.  A firm believer in playing football from back to front, this will be his second full season in charge.  He has a stronger squad than last year and will be looking to improve on third place in the league and winning the Continental Cup this year.

COYLG

The Untold Books

The latest Untold book is Arsenal: The Long Sleep 1953-1970 with a Foreword by Bob Wilson, available both as a paperback and as a Kindle book from Amazon.   Details of this and our previous and forthcoming titles can be found at Arsenal Books on this site.

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• 11 March 2013: Ex Arsenal man Brian McDermott was sacked as manager of Reading.  He later managed Leeds before returning to Arsenal as assistant to chief scout Steve Rowley
• 11 March 2014: Arsenal drew 1-1 with Bayern Munich in round of 16 in Champions League.  Podolski scored the goal, but having lost the first leg 0-2 it was not enough to take Arsenal through.

• Ref Review: MU – Arsenal: again no penalty for Arsenal
• The ten things that make me really, really, totally flaming mad and red faced about football.
• Ten reasons why I remain sweet and serene in relation to Arsenal and don’t want Wenger to leave.