Arsenal v Bristol City Women Preview

THE LOWDOWN
Arsenal play at home to bottom of the table Bristol City on Sunday evening in the WSL. A victory for the Gunners would put them nine points clear of Manchester United in 4th place with four games to spare and would virtually sew up the final Champions League qualification spot in the league table.

Bristol have three points from their last 12 WSL games and haven’t won since November. They trail West Ham at the bottom of the table by seven points, with this their game in hand. They are in must win territory. That won’t necessitate a change in approach from Lauren Smith’s side, who have scored more goals than West Ham and Everton immediately above them, but have the worst defensive record in the league by a long distance.

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Questions on

🔴How we finish the season and approach the transfer window
⚪️The damage of losing a winger and a full-back for the whole season
🔴Setpieces
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Coming off the back of an international break, Eidevall might elect to shuffle his pack a little and protect some of the players who faced particularly arduous journeys. For Arsenal there is a small sense of anti-climax for the remaining five games with anything other than 3rd place in the league looking extremely unlikely.

On the other hand, in an inconsistent season, Arsenal have secured silverware and with games at home to Bristol City and Leicester City and an away game at Everton, they have an opportunity to string a run of wins together and finish the season strongly. There is no tangible prize for that, as there was in their recent do or die Conti Cup Final win over Chelsea, but it is imperative that Arsenal retain their focus.

TEAM NEWS

Frida Maanum will not be considered after fainting during the Conti Cup Final win, she has been training with a heart monitor fitted over the international break and though there are no signs of heart trouble at this stage, Arsenal will spare her this game. Vivianne Miedema and Lia Walti are both unavailable after knee injuries, Laia Codina will be checked after withdrawing from Spain’s match against Czechia earlier this week with muscle discomfort. Amanda Ilestedt (pregnancy) and Lina Hurtig (back) are out, as are Teyah Goldie and Kaylan Marckese (both ACL).

Available squad
GOALKEEPERS: 1.Zinsberger 14.D’Angelo 40.Williams
DEFENDERS: 2.Fox 3.Wubben-Moy 6.Williamson 7.Catley 15.McCabe 26.Wienroither 27.Codina 62.Reid
MIDFIELDERS: 10.Little(c) 21.Pelova 32.Cooney-Cross 61.Earl
FORWARDS: 9.Mead 19.Foord 23.Russo 24.Lacasse 25.Blackstenius 53.Lia

A WORD FROM THE BOSS
‘They (Bristol City) have been a very, very competitive side. They ask a lot of different tactical questions for you as a side. They obviously have had a long time to prep for this game. I think it might be three weeks now without a game, so we need to take that into consideration as well. We know we need to play at our very best in order to be able to win the game. They also have players returning back here that have been away with injuries, they’ve had three weeks here now to work together as a team. So I go in there with the most respect for the opponent and our performance needs to be really good.

‘I never have the mindset of thinking about games that are easier or harder. It’s a competitive game, it’s the next one, it requires 100%. And I think when we talk about being a more consistent team, these are the games that we need to win and we need to apply ourselves 100%. If there’s something I’ve learned here, coming into the end of my third season, is that the league has been lost in games where others from the outside have thought that we were going to win beforehand.

‘And we haven’t been able to do that, and that tells me something about, okay, we need as a team to be able to apply ourselves even better, coming in with an even better performance in these games. For this last block here of the season for the future, if we’re going to give ourselves the best chance of winning.’

LAST TIME OUT
When the teams met in the reverse fixture in October, a pair of Katie McCabe goals saw Arsenal to a 2-1 victory at Ashton Gate. The teams played at Meadow Park in the Conti Cup group stage at Meadow Park in November when Frida Maanum, Lotte Wubebn-Moy and Stina Blackstenius were on the score sheet. The last time the teams faced off at Meadow Park in the WSL, it was also 3-1 in October 2020 and Jordan Nobbs, Caitlin Foord and Vivianne Miedema among the goals.

THE OPPOSITION
Bristol City, nee Bristol Academy, were promoted from the Championship last season and it is no mean feat for them to be in a league where Leicester City- whose men’s team played in the Champions League in 2017- are the only other WSL club not to be backed by a Premier League men’s team.

Bristol City, then known as Bristol Academy with strong links to the local university, were founder members of the WSL in 2011 and finished 4th in its inaugural season. In 2013, under future England boss Mark Sampson, they fought for the WSL title until the final day (with Liverpool winning out) and played in the 2014-15 Champions League quarter-final.

Lauren Smith meets the media ahead of Sunday's trip to Arsenal. 🎙

Catch the full press conference: 👇

— Bristol City Women (@bristolcitywfc) April 11, 2024

The increased investment of clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City, followed by other big Premier League clubs, meant their status as a top Championship / relegation battling WSL side was more or less confirmed. They were relegated from the WSL in the 2020-21 season and re-promoted last year under Lauren Smith, who formerly coached Bristol City’s U14 girls team, before stints as Wales and then Spurs Assistant Coach.

Bristol play an attacking brand of football which has meant they have not struggled for goals this season, especially with Danish striker Amalie Thestrup leading the line, she is on nine goals for the season. However, defence has been a big achilles heel- shopping 48 goals in their 17 league games so far. They do look destined for a swift return to the Championship.

PLAYER TO WATCH

Stina Blackstenius’ contract expires at the end of the season. The club’s position is very clear, they want to keep her but the player, understandably, is assessing her options before making a decision. For her it will probably come down to what types of other offer she gets- how much of a step down (if at all) will she need to take for more guaranteed minutes?

Blackstenius is a very valuable player for Arsenal, she scored the winner in the Conti Cup Final and is the club’s leading scorer. But the summer purchase of Alessia Russo clearly impacted her status in the team- she has started four of the 17 WSL games so far this season (though two of those have been against Manchester United and one away at Chelsea).

I suspect Blackstenius will start this game with Russo behind her with Maanum and Miedema unavailable, that opens that deeper role up to Russo a little and allows Eidevall to demonstrate some more faith in Stina to encourage her to reach for the pen and sign on the dotted line.

PREDICTED LINE UP

Subs: 7.Catley, 14.D’Angelo, 19.Foord, 21.Pelova, 26.Wienroither, 27.Codina, 40.Williams, 53.Lia, 62.Reid

HOW TO CATCH THE GAME
The game takes place at Meadow Park on Sunday at 6.45pm and will be shown live on Sky Sports in the UK. If you don’t have a Sky Sports subscription, you can also watch on Sky Showcase for free.

COMING UP
We will have our usual on the whistle match report courtesy of Aidan Gibson, as well as every word from Jonas Eidevall’s post-match press conference and the usual match analysis piece ready for Monday or Tuesday. Don’t forget that we have a free Arsenal Women newsletter on Substack which you can subscribe to here.