By Tony Attwood
Vivianne Miedema scored six and provided four assists (itself an all time league record) as Arsenal beat Bristol City 11-1 this past weekend – having been 9-0 up within the hour. It was the biggest victory in the Women’s Super League’s history. The previous record score was recorded by Liverpool – currently at the foot of the league table when they beat Doncaster Belles 9-0 in 2013.
The previous WSL record for goal involvements in a single match before today was 5, also by Miedema v Liverpool in Sept 2018 with three goals and two assists.
This means Vivianne Miedema has now scored 23 goals (10 this season) and this is the highest number recorded by any player so far. Lisa Evans scored twice, while Jordon Nobbs, Leah Williamson and Emma Mitchell got one each.
Arsenal had 32 shots during the game with 17 of the shots on target. That gives a rate of shots on target of around one every three minutes of the match.
So Arsenal go to the top of the league above Manchester City, although Chelsea now have a game in hand after their their game against Everton was postponed due to a frozen pitch.
The result comes just ten days after Arsenal beat Bristol City 7-0 in the Continental League Cup.
Miedema joined Arsenal from Bayern Munich in 2017, and in this game scored more goals in 49 minutes against Bristol City than she scored in the last seven league games together.
In her press interview afterwards she said, “I don’t even know what to say. Obviously getting a result like this is really good for us. I thought we played really well. I was actually happier assisting the other girls today. I love setting up goals. It just feels good.”
Not surprisingly the Bristol City manager said of her team’s performance that it was “completely unacceptable”, before adding that the players were “devastated” by the result.
Interestingly the possession statistics don’t really reflect the score, as Arsenal had 65% possession and City had 35%. However the shots total does look more like the match result, with Arsenal having 32 shots of which 17 were on target, while Bristol City managed just five shots in total, of which two were on target.
And so given this sort of result Arsenal are now top of the league (although only on goal difference) and are the top scoring club with 23 goals from eight games. It seems that they are now coming into their stride.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 23 | 4 | 19 | 21 |
| 2 | Manchester City | 8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 18 | 1 | 17 | 21 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 18 | 3 | 15 | 19 |
| 4 | Everton | 7 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 5 | 6 | 15 |
| 5 | Manchester United | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 13 | 6 | 7 | 12 |
| 6 | Reading | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 13 | -1 | 11 |
| 7 | Tottenham Hotspur | 7 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 10 | -4 | 9 |
| 8 | West Ham United | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 11 | 18 | -7 | 9 |
| 9 | Brighton and Hove Albion | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 16 | -9 | 6 |
| 10 | Birmingham City | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 14 | -12 | 3 |
| 11 | Bristol City | 8 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 28 | -22 | 3 |
| 12 | Liverpool | 8 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 10 | -9 | 1 |
If you are interested in Arsenal’s women’s team you might also be interested in reading about the event recently in which Joe Montemurro attended the AGM of the Arsenal Independent Supporters Association and gave an excellent talk.
There’s one other table that is worth considering – the top scorers in the league thus far…
| Rank | Name | Team | Goals | Penalties |
| 1 | Vivianne Miedema | Arsenal | 16 | 0 |
| 2 | Nikita Parris | Manchester City | 14 | 2 |
| 3 | Georgia Stanway | Manchester City | 11 | 0 |
| 4 | Danielle van de Donk | Arsenal | 10 | 1 |
| 5 | Jordan Nobbs | Arsenal | 9 | 0 |
Three in the top five play for Arsenal. It’s just like the old days.
Congratulations to the women, and Vivienne in particular. We are lucky to have her.
Hopefully the fans of Arsenal Women don’t ever become like this sorry bunch of AAA.
Hopefully not much chance of that Gord. The majority of the fans of the women seem to go and watch them – i think most of those carping on about how awful the men are do so from the comfort of their settees
The first two assists were winger’s crosses fron near the cornerflags, one fron the right with her right foot and the other from the left with her left foot. She is a truly remarkable player, the Netherlands all time record goal scorer at nearly one a game, she got the record in June in the World Cup with her second goal against Cameroon. This season for Arsenal she has 22 goals in 14 matches in all competitions (10 league, 2 league cup and 10 in the Champions League). She is only just 23 and is likely to continue getting better over the next few years – that’s a scary thought for all of our opponents!
She often looks disinterested during games but has the ability that all great players have of suddenly coming alive and changing the course of the game in a couple of minutes.
I would strongly urge all readers who get the opportunity to go along to a game and watch her and her team mates in action, either at Borehamwood or at one of the away games. There are very few players of genius in the world at any time and it is even rarer for one to be at the club we support so take the time to go whilst she is our player.
I’m hoping to see the Ladies (I think Ladies sounds classier) against Brighton on Jan 12. The game is being played at Crawley’s Broadfield Stadium.
Nice article about Miedema. Well, except the article ends with a few comments that have absolutely nothing to do with Miedema. Funny thing is, The Gribshfkewnskfg warns people making comments on the article, that their comments will be analysed for being on topic. The introduction of those ending points in the article from left field seemingly opens up that article to comments on just about anything in women’s football.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/dec/04/vivianne-miedema-arsenal-six-goals-netherlands-forward
For me, in the opening of the article, Miedema is described as hyper intelligent. Stupid comment; just call her intelligent.