Ameé Ruszkai

16 Feb 2024 11:00+03:00

Arsenal's season is falling apart - they must beat Man Utd to have any hope of winning the Women's
Super League

AnalysisArsenal WomenWSLAlessia RussoBeth MeadJonas EidevallWomen's footballArsenal Women

vs Manchester United WomenFEATURES

Six points behind leaders Chelsea and out of the FA Cup, the Gunners need a big win at the Emirates on
Saturday to spark their season back into life

Arsenal are the most successful team in the history of English women’s football. No one has won more
top-flight, FA Cup or League Cup titles than the Gunners, who are also the only English side ever to be
crowned champions of Europe. The standards are high and, this season, they’re falling some way short
of them.

Knocked out of the Champions League in the first round of qualifying, Arsenal were eliminated from
another competition last weekend when Manchester City defeated them in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
It leaves the Continental Cup and the Women’s Super League as their only two chances of silverware,
and they are six points off the pace in the latter.

Such disappointment is not new for the Gunners, who were enduring a four-year trophy drought until
they beat Chelsea in the Conti Cup final last March. But after working hard to close the gap on the top
teams and successfully compete for silverware again, it’d be a blow to suffer a fourth trophy-less
campaign in five years.

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Arsenal have shown that they can beat this best this year, getting the better of both Chelsea and Man
City, the two front-runners for the WSL title, in the league already. So why are they staring down the
barrel of yet another underwhelming season?

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Lack of consistency

Few periods in Arsenal’s season have summed it up better than the week before the winter break. The
Gunners were outstanding when Chelsea visited the Emirates in mid-December, putting the reigning
champions to the sword in an emphatic 4-1 victory.

But it was only a week later that they undid all that good work and surrendered the chance to go into
the New Year level on points with the Blues at the top of the table, finding themselves on the losing side
in a north London derby for the first time in the women’s game. Having had all of the ball and created
all of the chances, the Gunners were inexplicably undone on the counter after failing to display the
cutting edge that had been on show to the maximum only a week prior.

And that, in short, has been the story of Arsenal’s season. Jonas Eidevall’s side have struggled massively
against defensive-minded teams that have come out in low blocks, losing to Liverpool, Spurs and West
Ham – the latter also for the first time ever – despite beating Chelsea and, in November, Man City.

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Squad turnover

Why is that the case? Well, player turnover is at least one factor. A dozen new faces have been brought
into the first-team picture over the past 13 months, and it’s clear that the squad is still gelling as a unit
because of that. Injuries have played a part, too, with Beth Mead, Vivianne Miedema, Leah Williamson
and Laura Wienroither all sidelined for at least nine months because of anterior cruciate ligament
injuries suffered last season.

All of this means that rotation has been heightened, especially in comparison to the previous campaign
when, in dramatic contrast, injuries meant consistency was inevitable because of the lack of players
Eidevall had available.

With Arsenal set to lose goalkeeper Sabrina D’Angelo, forward Cloe Lacasse and full-back Emily Fox
this month to the inaugural CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup - D’Angelo and Lacasse competing in it
for Canada while Fox represents the United States - the problems that have come with the inconsistency
of player availability aren’t going away anytime soon, either.

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Pigeon-holed

This hasn’t just prevented the team from gelling, it’s also hindered Eidevall when it comes to tactical
fluidity. The Swede enjoys switching between a back-three and a back-four both in-game and in-season,
but has lacked the ideal personnel for the former throughout the current campaign.

It adds a sense of predictability to the Gunners’ play at times, especially when they come up against
teams that set up in a low block. Changing to a back-three would alter the picture slightly and offer
different options and angles, but it’s not something he has gone to much at all.

The last time Eidevall lined his team up in such a set-up was way back in early October, and it’s only
been seen in-game once since then, when Arsenal were chasing a winner against second-tier
Southampton in a cup game in November.

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Not taking chances

But the factors in Arsenal’s control cannot be ignored, either. After all, there have been serious problems
in the final third this year.

In all three of the Gunners’ WSL defeats, they outplayed their opponents statistically. They had
significantly more of the ball, an incredible amount of shots (an eye-watering 31 against Spurs,
compared to the opponents’ five) but failed to take advantage and, as a result, fell short.
In this league campaign, only Aston Villa and Everton have worse ‘big chance’ (as quantified by Opta)
conversion rates than Arsenal, and the Gunners sit mid-table for shot conversion, too, behind Chelsea,
Bristol City, Man City, Manchester United, Tottenham and Liverpool.

When you look at the quality of the forwards in their team – Alessia Russo, Mead, Miedema, Lacasse,
Caitlin Foord, Stina Blackstenius – that’s incredibly underwhelming.

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Not without fault

There have been questionable decisions on Eidevall’s part, too. When Arsenal found themselves 2-1
down to West Ham last month, for example, Miedema was brought off as the Swede made sure to
manage her minutes so soon after her return from an ACL injury. However, his decision to take Mead
off at the same time, a player who was much further ahead in her return to action, left many scratching
their heads at a time when the Gunners needed two goals.

Also puzzling is that Eidevall has failed to get more out of Russo, a player who he identified as ideal for
how he wants his team to play. "Do we have room for improvement in how we involve her, especially in
the penalty area, and how we get her more touches and shooting opportunities in there? Absolutely,” he
said in November. Yet, the England star continues to lack the service and support around her to really
thrive.

Then there is the limited use of certain players. Frida Maanum was Arsenal’s stand-out player last
season, but has only started five league games in the current campaign, while Blackstenius has found
herself on the outside looking in despite always providing a serious threat when on the pitch and even
looking like a suitable strike partner for Russo when the pair have started together.