THE LOWDOWN
Arsenal emerge from the winter break with a crucial six pointer, in Champions League qualification terms, at home to Manchester United in the WSL. The Gunners currently sit one point above United in the WSL table having already played them away from home, a victory at Emirates Stadium on Saturday gives them a strong buffer. Defeat leaves them playing catch up.
The club announced a contract extension for Head Coach Renee Slegers on Friday morning and confirmed the promotion of former player Jodie Taylor to Technical Director as Arsenal seeks to set its future direction with a squad rebuild in the post. But there is a much more immediate task at hand on Saturday lunchtime against Marc Skinner’s side.
In many respects, the 0-0 draw between the teams at Leigh Sports Village in September marked the beginning of an indifferent spell for Arsenal from which they only really emerged in the most recent block. Slegers will have to navigate the absence of Kyra Cooney-Cross for personal reasons but does at least have first choice goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar available again after some rotten luck with goalkeeper injuries in the first half of the season.
This marks a critical month for the club, with two games against United, a WSL clash away at Chelsea, a WSL game at home to Manchester City, an FA Cup tie against Aston Villa and the FIFA Champions Cup all on the horizon. A win against Manchester United to put Arsenal in charge of the Champions League qualification race would represent a very nice start.
TEAM NEWS
Arsenal will be without Kyra Cooney-Cross who has had to return to Australia for personal reasons. Kyra’s family has set up a gofundme link to help their family cope in a very difficult time.
Daphne van Domselaar is not quite ready to return from a quad injury and Chloe Kelly is not yet back from a knee problem. Jenna Nighswonger will not be in the match day squad as she negotiates a loan move away in January. New signing Smilla Holmberg will be in the squad after signing from Hammarby this month. Manu Zinsberger and Katie Reid are out with ACL injuries, Naomi Williams is available after being recalled from loan at Bristol City.
Available squad
Goalkeepers: 28.Borbe 40.Williams
Defenders: 2.Fox 3.Wubben-Moy 5.L.Codina 6.Williamson 7.Catley 11.McCabe 24.Hinds 31.Holmberg
Midfielders: 8.Mariona 10.Little(c) 12.L.Maanum 21.Pelova 32.Cooney-Cross
Forwards: 9.Mead 15.Smith 19.Foord 23.Russo 25.Blackstenius
A WORD FROM THE BOSS
‘I am honoured, grateful and happy for the opportunity (to sign a new contract). I have started something and we are building something. Building something takes time so I am happy for the opportunity to stay here a little longer and keep on contributing. I am happy that I am committed now to do my work as well as I can and the club is committed too.
‘We expect United to come out and be aggressive and apply themselves as they want to. We see they pride themselves on their defensive game, their intensity and their aggression. They have specific qualities they have added to their squad as well. We have to prepare ourselves for different scenarios depending on who they play because depending on that, they might do different things.
‘That’s the fun part of preparing for games in the WSL, you don’t always know exactly how teams are going to come out. What we do know is that we have to be on top of every single minute. We felt it at the Emirates last year, we took a big lead and they came back and they have shown that this season as well, they give everything from start to finish.’
LAST TIME OUT
When the teams met at Leigh Sports Village in September, they played out a 0-0 draw. This fixture on the final day of last season had a very different outcome with the Gunners winning 4-3 thanks to goals from Chloe Kelly, Frida Maanum, Kim Little and a Mariona penalty.
THE OPPOSITION
United have been busy in the January transfer window with the additions of full-back Hanna Lundkvist from San Diego Wave and centre-forward Lea Schuller from Bayern Munich. Marc Skinner was dealt a poor hand by the club hierarchy over the summer with a very small squad asked to handle Champions League qualifiers and the group phase.
That took its toll in some games with lethargic defeats against Manchester City and Aston Villa in November and some very open games like the 5-2 defeat to Wolfsburg, 3-2 win over Brighton and 3-3 draw against Spurs in which they were 3-0 down. Defensive solidity was United’s big strength last season so it has been a surprise to see them so open at times.
In the reverse fixture, United tried to be direct and play balls in behind Arsenal’s high defensive line to little avail thanks to the defending of Catley and Reid. With Schuller in the team, I would expect them to perhaps be a little more direct and look to work crosses into the Arsenal penalty area on this occasion.
PLAYER TO WATCH
With Kyra Cooney-Cross missing, Arsenal’s midfield trio of KCC, Mariona and Kim Little will be broken up by necessity. It means that Mariona will almost certainly drop back into the deeper role that she has played for much of the last year. The Spaniard probably needed the winter break more than most, having played an enormous number of minutes for club and country over the last few years.
She was spared the League Cup quarter-final against Crystal Palace and controlling the midfield against a likely partnership of Miyazawa and Julia Zigiotti will be crucial in deciding the outcome of this match. In the reverse match in September, United controlled this space in a defensive sense very well indeed and managed to isolate Alessia Russo from the rest of the team.
With Ella Toone unavailable, I suspect United will pick Jess Park in an advanced midfield role, unless they really want to try to control the space out of possession with someone like Naalsund or by moving Dominique Janssen into midfield. Whatever they do, Mariona will have her work cut out but she also has the sort of star quality to decide tight matches.
PREDICTED LINE UP
Subs: 3.Wubben-Moy 5.L.Codina 19.Foord 21.Pelova 24.Hinds 25.Blackstenius 31.Holmberg 40.Williams 44.Harwood
HOW TO CATCH THE GAME
The game takes place at 12.30 on Saturday at Emirates Stadium and will be shown live on Sky Sports in the UK. Full global listings can be found here.
COMING UP
We will have line-up news on the site an hour before kickoff, Aidan Gibson’s on the whistle match report, every word from Renee Slegers’ post-match press conference on site about an hour after the final whistle, a match day vlog and Jamie and I will have a podcast for you on Monday.
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