Arsenal will start with Alessia Russo and Stina Blackstenius together for the first time for this afternoon’s trip to Brighton in the WSL. Lia Walti returns to the bench after missing the last two games with injury, as does Laia Codina who has missed the last three.
Manu Zinsberger starts in goal with a back four of Noelle Maritz, Amanda Ilestedt, Lotte Wubben-Moy and Katie McCabe. Victoria Pelova and Kyra Cooney-Cross continue as the midfield double pivot with Alessia Russo ahead of them.
Upfront, Beth Mead makes her first WSL start in almost exactly one year and will play on the right, with Caitlin Foord on the left and Stina Blackstenius upfront. Sabrina D’Angelo was a late withdrawal from the squad so Naomi Williams is on the bench.
1.Zinsberger; 16.Maritz, 28.Ilestedt, 3.Wubben-Moy, 15.McCabe(c); 32.Cooney-Cross, 21.Pelova; 9.Mead, 23.Russo, 19.Foord; 25.Blackstenius.
Subs: 7.Catley, 12.Maanum, 13.Walti, 17.Hurtig, 22.Kuhl, 24.Lacasse, 27.Codina, 40.Williams.
Strong lineup💪. And that bench is 🔥🔥🔥. COYG! Three points please 🙏.
Hope it works…..But I’m not a fan.
It’s hard for me to believe Russo is our best option at 10 ahead of Frida, Viv or even Ke
She’s not playing as an out-and-out striker, and in fact, made a last-ditch goal-saving tackle today. She arrived with a reputation of being far more deadly in front of goal than she has proven to be, but there is more to her game than that.
To be fair, I posted before the game started and the article stated that Russo was in front of Pelova/KCC double pivot. To me that meant ~ 10, but what do I know. Glad it worked out. Find it odd that just because I express a different preference in a line up that I get down voted liked I’m freaking Kazoo and all the other JE bashers that oddly have not shown since we lost last. I love this team and wake up at 5:30am to watch them on Sunday mornings (Colorado). Nothing but respect & I don’t bash players.… Read more »
I agree re the downvote. I admit that I’ve been worried about the sheer volume of missed chances across the team, and I thought that Russo would change a lot of that, but that tackle was as good as scoring a goal.
I’m still around. There’s nothing much to say when Arsenal beat bottom-of-table teams. And, yea, I’m not a fan of Eidevall. The way he’s handled Miedema has been positively idiotic. The fact that she’s not playing CF for this team is positively idiotic. The fact that he brings in lesser forwards and pretends they are better goal-scorers than Miedema is…positively idiotic.
Well, we won 3-0. The most disturbing stat, though, is that we scored from our only 3 shots on target. We had 20 attempts altogether, but on 3 on target. This is why we’ve struggled in some games. Improve the finishing and Arsenal Women will be sweeping all aside.
*only 3 on target
The most impressive stat is we didn’t let any in for a change!