Arsenal defeated bottom of the table Liverpool 1-0 in the WSL on Sunday afternoon. Tim Stillman spoke to Gunners forward Beth Mead after the final whistle exclusively for Arseblog News.
On starting on the right with van de Donk on the left today…
We just wanted to change it up a little, we don’t want to become too predictable, so we freshened things up. Myself and DvD can play either side anyway and it worked quite well for us to do that today. But we are a flowing front three anyway, so sometimes Viv ends up on the wing and one of the wingers comes inside, they’re not set positions even if we start in a certain way and we rotated a lot today.
On the importance of keeping pace with Chelsea and Manchester City at the top of the WSL…
These games are important games for us, these teams are hard to play against they set up quite defensively and make it hard for you to play and it’s up to us to break them down. We probably should have had more goals today- I missed some chances- but as we saw last season these are the types of games that decide leagues and we need to keep the pressure on the likes of City and Chelsea at the top.
On Liverpool’s strong defensive record despite their position at the bottom of the table…
Yes, they were tough opponents and their game plan was to frustrate us. They know if they stay in games long enough, opponents can get frustrated and start trying to force it and you can catch them on the counter attack. We had to stay professional and disciplined in the way you set up and the way you play. We wanted to keep going for goals without any defensive mistakes, but we know they don’t concede many. So to win 1-0 take the clean sheet and the three points was very important.
Surprise, surprise, @VivianneMiedema strikes again ?♀️
Goal number 16 for the season ? pic.twitter.com/imobVoXXEn
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) November 24, 2019
On winning every home game since January 13th…
This is our home and our fortress and we want that fear factor here, we want for teams to come here and know it will be hard. We don’t drop many points here and it’s a good feeling for us when we play at Meadow Park.
On having players to unlock stubborn defences…
We’ve got a belief throughout the whole team that anyone can make something happen in any moment, we always feel like we can score. Today we were 1-0 up and we were in control so we didn’t have to put ourselves under any more pressure and keep the ball well. I will admit that our first half was better than our second half today but that happens sometimes and we just knew the win was the most important thing.
? One-nil, to The Arsenal… ?@BarclaysFAWSL ? pic.twitter.com/H2CVyLefv9
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) November 24, 2019
Hopefully the title doesn’t come down to goal difference
A nice solid performance from the women.
My attention to the game was limited in the second half as my 3 year old grandson preferred splashing in the puddles on the terrace behind Manu’s goal to watching the football. However, what I did see was a totally dominant performance littered by a number of miss-placed passes & missed chances. Liverpool came “with hope in their hearts” and the will to run, harry & chase for a 0-1 “victory in defeat”. Anyway, little Joshue had fun running about behind the goal and he was safe from being clattered by the ball from wayward shots ‘cos zLiverpool didnt have… Read more »
Very workmanlike, but you can’t complain if they get the job done.
Interesting to hear they are deliberately trying new things. Hope it pays off for us later in the season.