Everton Women v Arsenal Preview

THE LOWDOWN
Arsenal travel to Merseyside on Sunday lunchtime to take on Brian Sorensen’s injury hit Everton team. The Gunners secured a minimum of 3rd place last weekend with their win over Leicester City while Manchester United dropped points at home to Tottenham. In reality, Arsenal have been pretty much odds on to finish in third place for some weeks now.

And, if we are honest, the remainder of the campaign has felt a little anti-climactic since the Conti Cup Final win over Chelsea. Winning that final has at least made it a more pleasant anti-climax but only three journalists asked questions of Jonas Eidevall in this week’s pre-match press conference with wider media attention understandably on Chelsea UWCL semi-final against Barcelona on Saturday.

Spoke to Jonas Eidevall about Arsenal's improvement against low defensive blocks and increased fluidity in attack.

'We can see we can progress and develop over the season. That is really important but it is also important to start at a higher level than we did this year.' https://t.co/h9kIEVUa9L

— Tim Stillman (@Stillmanator) April 26, 2024

However anti-climactic the closing weeks of the season feel, Arsenal are in good form. They have registered three of their four highest non-penalty XG totals for the season in their last three games and their issues against deep block defences seem to be a thing of the past, with the team expressing itself in attack far better and greater cohesion taking hold.

Eidevall told Arseblog News on Friday that, while he was pleased with the team’s progression through the season, they need to start at a much higher vantage point next time around- not least because they will almost certainly have to contend with Champions League qualifying rounds again. Everton play a back five against the big three and this will be another examination of Arsenal’s credentials against a deep block.

TEAM NEWS

Kyra Cooney-Cross (knee) and Lotte Wubben-Moy (foot) are back in the squad after missing last weekend’s victory over Leicester. Vivianne Miedema (knee) and Frida Maanum returned during last weekend’s game and remain in the squad. Lia Walti (MCL), Lina Hurtig (personal reasons), Amanda Ilestedt (pregnancy) and Kaylan Marckese (ACL) are out.

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 29.Goldie
MIDFIELDERS: 10.Little 12.Maanum 21.Pelova 32.Cooney-Cross
FORWARDS: 9.Mead 11.Miedema 19.Foord 23.Russo 24.Lacasse 25.Blackstenius

A WORD FROM THE BOSS
‘I think it makes more sense to summarise the season after we’ve played all the last three games. But speaking generally, we want to win the league. We are Arsenal, we want to win all competitions that we are in.

‘We wanted to qualify for the group stage and go far in Europe, which we didn’t do. We would have loved to go to an FA Cup final. So there are definitely things that we can do better and we know that. As I’ve said before, consistency is a big thing for us in order to improve.

‘To start on a better level than we did this season. It’s also an important thing for us to correct and make better for next season and also things that are entirely within our own control. We need to reflect and make that better.’

LAST TIME OUT
Arsenal were 2-1 winners when the teams met in January. Caitlin Foord gave Arsenal an early lead before Katja Snoeijs equalised. Beth Mead’s goal just before half-time settled it for Arsenal. When the teams met in this fixture last season, it finished 4-1 to Arsenal with a brace from Caitlin Foord and further goals from Katie McCabe and Lotte Wubben-Moy.

THE OPPOSITION
The Toffees sit in 9th place, now mathematically clear of relegation though they were never seriously in that conversation. They cannot match last season’s 6th place finish nor their points total of 30 points (they currently have 18 points with three games to go). However, this season has been an injury hit one for Everton.

They lost key defender Gabby George to Manchester United close to the summer transfer deadline and Chelsea took Swedish defender Nathalie Bjorn from them in January too. On top of this, Nicoline Sorensen had to retire due to a heart issue. Brian Sorensen has taken to coming to press conferences with his injury list written on a piece of paper so he doesn’t forget any names.

Brian Sorensen provided an update to his squad ahead of Sunday's #BarclaysWSL match against Arsenal. 🤕#EFC pic.twitter.com/PErfELP3dT

— Everton Women (@EvertonWomen) April 26, 2024

Heather Payne, Rikki Madsen, Emily Ramsey, Toni Duggan, Katrine Veje, Aurora Galli and Arsenal loanee Kathrine Kuhl are all out of this game, with Hannah Bennison recovering from illness and Karoline Olesen facing a late fitness test. Everton will play with a back five, as they usually do and they will look to pull Arsenal out of shape by playing out from the back.

Everton’s issue has been a lack of punch in the final third, only bottom club Bristol City have created a lower XG this season and they are the joint lowest scorers in the WSL with West Ham. Given the financial issues dogging the club, it is difficult to see where Everton go next season but well placed reports suggest coach Brian Sorensen will get a new contract and he might have to count on a talented crop of academy players, many of whom will fill out the bench for this fixture.

PLAYER TO WATCH

In the 5-0 win over Bristol City, Caitlin Foord was given a brief to stay very wide on the left hand side and stretch the pitch against Bristol’s back five. Yet last week, Foord was given greater license to float across the front line, popping up in the right channel to assist Beth Mead for the opening goal at the Emirates.

Eidevall told Arseblog News that with Steph Catley at centre-half, he felt the angles a left footed centre-half provided favoured the left winger drifting in-field. This weekend, I suspect Lotte Wubben-Moy will be restored to the team and while Leicester played in a back four, Everton will play in a five.

I expect Foord to, again, be asked to provide the width on the left with Arsenal to adopt five attacking lanes against Everton. Foord has scored in three of her last four appearances against Everton. Look out for Arsenal building on the right with Fox, Williamson and Mead before quickly switching to the left. That’s exactly how Foord scored at Everton in April 2022.

PREDICTED LINE-UPS

HOW TO CATCH THE GAME
The game takes place at a sold out Walton Hall Park on Sunday at 12.30pm and will be screened live on BBC Two in the UK.

COMING UP
We will have every word of Jonas Eidevall’s post-match reaction on the site on Sunday afternoon, as well as Aidan Gibson’s on the whistle match report straight after full-time. We will also have the usual post match analysis piece on the site on Monday or Tuesday.