Arsenal Women extended their lead at the top of the WSL to 6 points with a 4-0 win over Everton at Southport FC, but the result was marred by a serious looking injury to Jordan Nobbs. Tim Stillman caught up with Gunners boss Joe Montemurro immediately after the match exclusively for Arseblog News.
On the injury to Jordan Nobbs…..
When you have such a united group that is so together and something negative happens with a player, it’s always a big dampener. But this is part of football and we have to be resolute and smart as a group to keep it going. Whatever the injury is, and we don’t know yet, it’s too early, it’s very hard to say. We’ll find out and we’ll assess it and go from there.
Back to front in the matter of seconds ?
And a cool head from @JordanNobbs8 to double @ArsenalWFC's lead#FAWSL pic.twitter.com/EhMkgL5Idi
— The FA Women's Super League (@FAWSL) November 18, 2018
On a tough first 30 minutes against a stubborn Everton defence….
With ten players sitting very, very deep you have to be patient and try to drag players out of position. It looks slow because we have to sit until we find an opportunity or an opening. Maybe we didn’t quite start at the pace that we wanted, but we were in control and we just had to find the right moment and fair play to Everton for defending really well in that period of the game. But it was a matter of time before we broke them down.
On Danielle van de Donk opening the scoring just before half time….
To be very honest, no, it wasn’t a relief. I was very comfortable with what the players were doing, with the way they were trying to find opening. We were creating chances and it was just a matter of time, so no, I didn’t feel relieved. It was important to keep control and keep probing and trying to find openings under these circumstances, when you’ve got a team with lots of players behind the ball. Sometimes it is just going to be a matter of time and I am more uncomfortable when we don’t have control.
It was going to take something special to beat Kirstie Levell…@DanielleDonk gives @ArsenalWFC a half-time lead ?#FAWSL pic.twitter.com/PjTOQbGjmB
— The FA Women's Super League (@FAWSL) November 18, 2018
Joe’s message at half time…..
We were in control and not in a lot of danger, so we just said to keep going, to keep doing what we’re doing. We pretty much played man on man at the back so we could have an extra player forward, because we needed to open spaces. We just made a couple of little adjustments in midfield positionally so we were able to press them a little higher and get the rewards further up the pitch.
On two more goals for Vivianne Miedema….
We work so much on creating actions and chances, so having someone that is so reliable at finishing those actions is great. Her movements are always spot on, so if we are right in creating those opportunities, she is always on the end of them and we’re delighted to have someone that can put those away.
The icing on the cake ?@ArsenalWFC win 4-0 and @VivianneMiedema is now just two goals shy of equalling Ellen White's record of 15 in a #FAWSL season ? pic.twitter.com/O0lxsBK4In
— The FA Women's Super League (@FAWSL) November 18, 2018
On the addition of Janni Arnth in January…
Going into the second half of the season, we need some experience and we need players because there is going to be a lot of games and the squad depth will be tested. Not just in numbers, but quality too. We have to bring players of this quality to bring us to the next level, the reality is we’re going to have game after game after game after Christmas. Janni is the type of ball playing defender that we want.
I don’t think we played great in the first half but was very happy to see we could break them after all. Everton was okay defensively, but I think it was mainly the goalkeeper who was excellent. Quite a few goals again, with again two from Vivianne – so very happy about that. Though if Jordan is going to be out with serious injury we could be seriously screwed. Kim might be back in the new year, but Jordan is a player of such calibre, hard to see us fill that void. Just such rotten luck for us this season,… Read more »
Thanks, Tim. Another excellent win, another clean sheet – well done, ladies. We did seem to move the ball a bit slowly at times in the first half, but I really liked the fact that we seemed to have learned from the Birmingham game and remembered to pick up the pace and move them around. I was channelling Joe Montemurro and just knew we would score before the break – so thanks, DvdD! Teams are coming at us with a game plan now, so satisfying to see that we work it out and nullify it. Nobbs’ injury is devastating. The… Read more »
Won every game with an average winning margin of 4 goals. V impressive.
What happened to Nobbs? Another bad tackle like the Kim Little injury?
No this was much more innocuous, looks like she got her studs caught in the ground as she turned.
10 games, 50 goals scored and only 5 conceded.
The team is on fire, let’s hope it keeps going!
I would get much more behind this if it was known as the WFL.
WSL why go American on this particular subject and sport?
It stands for ‘Super League’, not ‘Soccer League.’