Arsenal Women – FA Cup
Arsenal women: second half reinforcements
by Andrew Crawshaw
After our win in the League Cup Quarter Final on Thursday Night, we are back in cup action again this afternoon (Sunday) against Leeds United.
The Women’s FA Cup is open to all clubs affiliated to the FA, be they amateur or professional. The WSL teams enter in this, the fourth round. Leeds came in much earlier and this will be their 5th cup game this campaign. A total of 439 clubs entered this year with matches starting on 11 September. Here’s the schedule
- 11 September – First qualifying round
- 2 October – Second qualifying round
- 23 October – Third qualifying round
- 13 November – First round
- 27 November – Second Round
- 11 December – Third round
- 29 January – Fourth round (round of 32)
- 26 February – fifth round (round of 18)
- 19 March – Quarter final
- 16 April – Semi final
- 14 May Final at Wembley
How did our opponents get to this match?
Leeds United entered in the third qualifying round when they played away to South Shields (a town in the North East) winning 5 – 1. As a result in the first round proper they were at home to Brighouse Town winning 1 – 0 on penalties after a 1 – 1 draw after 90 minutes and no further score in the 30 minutes of extra time.
In the second round Leeds were away to Redcar (another North Eastern club) where they won 7 – 2, before going on to the third round where they were at home to Stoke winning 3 – 1 in front of a crowd of 256
All matches in the fourth round are being played on Sunday – the full list is below with the league the teams play in are included in brackets…
| Time | Home team | Away Team |
| 12:00 | Durham (Championship) | Crystal Palace (Championship) |
| 12:00 | Spurs (WSL) | London City Lionesses (Championship) |
| 13:00 | Man City (WSL) | Sheffield United (Championship) |
| 13:00 | Chelsea (WSL) | Liverpool (WSL) |
| 13:00 | Everton (WSL) | Birmingham City (Championship) |
| 14:00 | Coventry (Championship) | Hashtag United (National League SE Div 1) |
| 14:00 | Arsenal (WSL) | Leeds (National League North Div 1) |
| 14:00 | West Brom (National League North) | Brighton (WSL) |
| 14:00 | Burnley (National League North) | Cardiff City (National League Division 1 South West) |
| 14:00 | Ipswich (National League South) | Lewes (Championship) |
| 14:00 | Wolves (National League North) | West Ham (WSL) |
| 15:00 | AFC Wimbledon (National League Division 1 South East) | Charlton (Championship) |
| 15:00 | Bristol City | Oxford United (National League South) |
| 16:00 | Leicester City (WSL) | Reading (WSL) |
| 18:00 | Aston Villa (WSL) | AFC Fylde (National League North) |
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In case you are not necessarily familiar with the various tiers of the Women’s game here is a quick review…
WSL (Women’s Super League) – this is of course where Arsenal play. The top tier 12 clubs all fully professional the top three clubs qualify for the Champions League, the bottom team are relegated
The Championship – the second tier 12 clubs mostly fully professional. The top team gains promotion to the WSL.
National League Premier Division North and South – 12 team leagues roughly split geographically. Most teams are amateur or semi-professional.
National League Division 1 – four 12 team divisions split into North, Midlands, South East and South West. Virtually all, if not all, are amateur.
There is a big gap in quality between the top and bottom of the WSL, which widens to a chasm when comparing the top of the WSL and the lower teams in the Championship.
Leeds are the lowest-ranking team left in the competition and it will be a shock of enormous proportion if Arsenal don’t win this game quite easily even if we rest many of our top stars which I wouldn’t be at all suprised us to do.
It will be interesting to see who starts in goal. Sabrina D’Angelo had a solid game on Thursday and revelled in having her own chant even during the warm up – a reworking of Saliba’s Tequila. She would be a solid choice but I wouldn’t be surprised if Kaylan Marckese our No 3 keeper gets a shout for her first Arsenal game.
The other interesting call for Jonas Eidevall to make will be how many of the Academy players he brings into the squad. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a few on the bench. Likewise, I would expect all of our new signings to get significant minutes, if not a start. Brazilian Gio Queiroz couldn’t play on Thursday as she had played in that cup competition for her loan side, We will undoubtedly see her.
My starting 11
Kaylan Marckese (GK)
Laura Wienroither, Lotte Wubben-Moy, Jen Beattie, Steph Catley
Leah Williamson, Frida Maanum, Kathrine Møller Kühl
Gio Queiroz, Stina Blackstenius, Lina Hurtig
Subs
Sabrina D’Angelo (GK), Rafaelle Souza, Teyah Goldie, Kim Little, Katie McCabe, Caitlin Foord, Victoria Pelova, plus 2 or 3 youngsters from the academy
I have chosen a strong lineup as our forwards need to get back into the habit of scoring goals and this game should be a good opportunity to do that. I have a very low confidence level that I will be in any way correct and stand to be pleasantly surprised at the final choice.
I’ll be at the game and will try and provide updates at intervals.
Watch it live
Arsenal are streaming the game on arsenal.com and the official app. Coverage starts at 13:45.
COYWG
Half time at Borehamwood and a comfortable 3-0 lead for Arsenal. Caitlin Foord with the first kathrine Khül with the second, her first for the club and Kim Little from the penalty spot. Virtually the whole game beimg played in the Leefs final third. More goals to come as the fitness gap between the two sides comes to the fore as the game progresses
Final score 9-0. A flurry of late goals as Leeds tired. All of the newcomers on the score sheet as was 16 year old Michelle Agyemang one of our youth squad who came on as a substitute. Job done today, sterner tests await.
I was very impressed with Victoria Pelova and Gio’s contributions to the game, and Frida Maanum is turning into a fantastic player.