Arsenal Women were eliminated from the Champions League at the quarter-final stage on Saturday evening after a 2-1 defeat to Paris Saint Germain in San Sebastián. The match was supposed to be a two-legged affair in March until coronavirus intervened.
PSG will now meet Lyon in the semi-final, with Wolfsburg to play Barcelona in the other semi. The final will take place on Sunday evening.
The Gunners will not be in the competition for 2020-21 having finished 3rd on points per game in the WSL last season. They needed to win the tournament to ensure qualification. In 2021-22, an extra place is open to the WSL in the Champions League, so the top 3 in the league will qualify next season.
WHAT NEXT?
Arsenal begin their WSL campaign on Sunday, 6th September at home to Reading at Meadow Park behind closed doors. A week later, they travel to West Ham who now play their home games at Dagenham & Redbridge F.C.’s Chigwell Construction Stadium. The remaining WSL fixtures are due to be announced in the next week or so, the FA were waiting for confirmation of the Football League schedule before plotting the remaining WSL fixtures due to the number of WSL and WSL Championship clubs who groundshare with Football League clubs.
THE WOMEN’S FA CUP
Last season’s competition had not finished at the suspension of play in March and the competition will now be completed in the autumn. Arsenal have a quarter-final tie at home to Spurs, which will now take place at Boreham Wood on 26th September, with the semi-finals taking place on 30th September / 1st October. The final will be played at Wembley Stadium on Saturday, 31st October. Arsenal Women have won the trophy a record 14 times.
THE CONTI CUP
The equivalent to the League Cup, the Conti Cup group phase will be played during the autumn. Usually clubs from the WSL and the Championship are drawn into regional groups [north and south] with five teams per group and the teams playing one another once. Then the top two from each group qualifies for the quarter-finals in January. The final is played in late February. The draw date for the Conti Cup group stages has not yet been announced.
THE TRANSFER WINDOW
The transfer window for WSL clubs closes on September, 10th. For Arsenal, that is probably of little relevance with no further additions or exits currently planned. Joe Montemurro always does his transfer business early and rarely impulse buys.
HOW CAN I WATCH THE GAMES?
Easy, just download the FA Player app in your preferred app store and you can watch every WSL game for free. In the UK, the games selected for coverage on either BT Sport or the BBC are not shown on the FA Player in the UK [but still are everywhere else]. The app is not geoblocked, except for the following territories with their own local TV deals:
Australia- Optus Sport
Mexico, Central America and the Dominican Republic- Sky Mexico
Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark- NENT
Selected FA Cup games are also shown on the FA Player, while a small handful of Conti Cup matches are also. In the UK, BBC Sport selects one Women’s FA Cup game per round for live coverage.
For further information on the Arsenal first team squad, check out this squad profile.
COVERAGE ON ARSEBLOG NEWS
On Arseblog News, you can expect a match preview for every competitive game published around 36 hours before kickoff, you can also expect exclusive player and / or manager reaction after every competitive game. On top of that, we will have exclusive feature interviews with players each month and, of course, Pippa and Tim will continue to churn out an Arsenal Women Arsecast for you once a month. All of the pictures we use on Arseblog News are shot and purchased specifically for the site from photographers that work Arsenal Women games regularly.
god, i hate the font!
I’m guessing you’re talking about the bear attack away kits we are wearing this year. What a disaster.
Very Gothic! I think it looks great. Love the raspberry ripple shirts and red shorts too! 🙂
This is f*cking excellent! 🙂
Obviously not losing to PSG – but the whole FA Player App and free games to watch. Just signed up. Cant wait to try it out!
Great article. Thanks Tim. I’m just starting to learn more about the women’s team so all this information was extremely useful. I just signed up for the ap and look forward to the season ahead. Any chance you could do a squad profile ahead of the new season? Nothing fancy, just a brief intro to the team, how we set up, reasonable expectations for different competitions and who our big rivals are? I’m sure I could look all this up myself too in case I’m the only one who would find this interesting/useful.
Tim wrote a comprehensive squad profile on 19th August if you look back a few posts.
As for rivals, Man City and Chelsea are really all we need worry about. Man Utd and the Spuds are still developing teams playing catch up. Without European games to fit in this season we should win something and we’re not out of last season’s FA Cup yet which is due to conclude in 5 or 6 weeks time.
Way ahead of you 🙂 https://arseblog.news/2020/08/arsenal-women-squad-profile-2020-21/
Thanks Tim, useful summary as ever.
May I suggest a re-write in the following sentence:
… Pippa and Tim will continue to bring you an insightful and interesting Arsenal Women Arsecast …
Have been really enjoying them 🙂
Thanks! 🙂
Seconded! The Arsecasts about Arsenal Women are always a really good listen.
Thanks for the information “stocking filler”
Tim.
A thought from some other “chats”. Wouldnt it be a real boost for the girls and the fans if the cup tie v the Spuds were to be switched to the Emirates and played in front of a socially distanced crowd.
The ideal game to experiment with and a quid pro quo for last year’s geat day at the Toilet Bowl.
Alas, I think it will come too early, I think anything in the Emirates before 1st October is not going to be possible.
Thanks again for the post, Tim. Arseblog consistently has the best coverage of our women’s team.
Thanks Tim, for continued coverage of the women’s team. I’ve really enjoyed Pippa and your various knowledgeable guests on the Arsecast pods too.
Cheers, Tim. Roll on September 6th! And that FA Cup tie v Sp*rs could be tasty.