Zinsberger; McCabe, Codina, Wubben-Moy, Catley; Pelova, Wälti; Mead, Little, Foord; Russo
Substitutes: Williams (GK), Bouhaddi (GK), Williamson, Reid, Cooney-Cross, Earl, Maanum, Lia, Blackstenius
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Arsenal have won 7 straight home WSL matches, keeping their faint hopes of a WSL title alive with a 1-0 win against Tottenham in front of 60,050 at the Emirates Stadium.
Jonas Eidevall made three changes to the team that beat Manchester United, with Caitlin Foord and Alessia Russo replacing Cloé Lacasse, who is at the Gold Cup, and Stina Blackstenius, who was named on the bench, and Manuela Zinsberger replacing Sabrina D’Angelo, who is also at the Gold Cup.
First Half
From a series of corners, Arsenal should’ve gone ahead inside of five minutes. Alessia Russo was left unmarked from a corner, but her stabbed attempt at Catley’s corner went wide.
Arsenal’s set pieces were causing danger, especially with Catley’s in-swinging deliveries from corners.
Manuela Zinsberger was called into action on 17 minutes as Tottenham broke. The ball was played through to a clearly offside Martha Thomas on the right, but with no flag, Thomas drove into the box, beat Catley and then shot at Zinsberger, who parried the shot and then collected at the second time of asking.
With Tottenham sticking 10 behind the ball, as they did in the return fixture, Arsenal were finding it difficult to turn pressure and control into good chances. Beth Mead, for instance, cut inside, but rather than having a clear sight of goal, she had a defender in her way, blocking her left footed shot.
At the other end, Naz beat Codina, and from the corner of the penalty box hit the crossbar, with Zinsberger getting a crucial touch.
Arsenal finally called Spencer into action shortly before the end of the first half. Mead drove on, and passed to McCabe, whose shot was easily caught.
Second Half
Arsenal started the half sharply, with neat midfield play setting up a chance for McCabe to strike from distance, with her shot blocked wide for a corner.
Moments later, Arsenal made the breakthrough. Kim Little played a brilliant ball over the penalty box for Mead. Mead’s first touch was excellent, and as she closed in on goal, she was taken down. Mead had the wherewithal to work the ball to Russo, who fired into the top of the net. 1-0.
Wälti’s diagonal found Mead in space, but her first touch got away from her and Tottenham were able to get defenders back.
Mead was found again by Wubben-Moy’s diagonal, and she found the supporting run of Little, but the captain’s cutback was smothered by Spencer in goal.
On 73 minutes, Eidevall made a triple substitution. Stina Blackstenius replaced Russo, Leah Williamson, back from a hamstring injury, replaced Laia Codina, and Kyra Cooney-Cross replaced Pelova.
From a free kick, Mead shot straight at Spencer. McCabe was then booked for the offence of being Katie McCabe — it was Blackstenius who stopped Spencer from playing the ball quickly, and McCabe went in to defend her teammate.
Spencer then passed to Blackstenius, but made up for the error in blocking the cross.
On 84 minutes, Frida Maanum replaced Caitlin Foord, with the Norwegian going to the left wing.
The match entered 7 minutes of stoppage time. Vinberg played a dangerous cross for England, but Wubben-Moy did enough to put the striker off.
Maanum allowed Clinton to get by her too easily, and she got into the box, but between Cooney-Cross and Williamson, the cutback was cleared. It was, though, uncomfortable viewing as Arsenal really struggled to keep hold of the ball. Perhaps Zinsberger’s need for treatment doubled as a quick coaching session to plan out the final minutes of stoppage time.
Indeed, Arsenal were able to regain some composure and keep the ball in Tottenham’s half, and the final whistle went. A nervy 1-0 win won’t do much to assuage concerns about Arsenal’s ability to break down low blocks, but in a must-win game, Arsenal won.
It’s amazing that we are still in with a chance of the title. On form over the course of the season so far, Chelsea & City have been far better teams than us. It’s been hard going watching this team this season to be honest, a couple of exceptions aside.
Still hoping for a miracle though !
Katie has definitely reached Granit Xhaka levels now, where some.of her cards are just cos she is Katie McCabe & for no other reason.
I think we would be leading the League had Rafaele Souza stayed.
Unfortunately, links to goals are blocked for some locations, like the United States. Going online to watch the goals is very frustrating and not fruitful. But it is easy to watch the mens’ team goals as the links do not rely on X (previously known as Twitter) as the links are not from X. In fact, they are very enjoyable as they are usually from a French commentator who is amusingly unable to place the correct emphasis on anything commented upon. Of course, I enjoy this a lot as I am French educated and I have endured bad commentators all… Read more »
Same here in Canada. Plus, I get Pavlovianly angry every time I see that X. I’m furious now having to type it! Other than that, loving the recaps! Thanks!
Yeah, unfortunately unlike with the men’s team there are no easy, consistent sources to get the goals outside of using Twitter/X. Post game, they’re definitely available on YouTube etc, but during the game or right after they often aren’t.
Phew.
Let’s introduce time outs say 1 each per half instead of this charade of the keeper feigning injury every match.
One of those questions that you can’t ask, but I’m fascinated by who decides when to essentially “take” the timeout. It was perfectly timed here–did the decision come from someone on the bench who signaled to Manu, or did she feel it was necessary?
I’m very happy with that. The three points was everything. When the team watch the video back they will see what a difference it made on the few occasions when they played quickly or did something unexpected. Importantly, we didn’t concede, although when England connected with that cross at the end, my heart was in my mouth – I was sure that that was going to be a goal. Well done, Lotte, basically. That was a key point – England didn’t just miss, LWM put her off. We didn’t play scintillating football, we were mentally not at our sharpest but… Read more »