Arsenal v Manchester City Women Preview

THE LOWDOWN
Arsenal open their WSL season against Manchester City at Emirates Stadium on Sunday lunchtime. The game yields an immediate reunion with Vivianne Miedema, who left the club during the summer with her contract having expired. For Arsenal, their need to qualify for the Champions League group stages via a circuitous qualifying route means they have already played three competitive games.

A 6-0 win over Rangers was followed by a slightly more nervy 1-0 win over Rosenborg, before Wednesday night’s 1-0 defeat to Hacken in Sweden. The second leg of that tie takes place on Thursday evening but, before then, it is full focus on Manchester City and making a better start to the WSL season than last season when they were beaten 1-0 at home by Liverpool.

New! ‘We know a lot about her, but she knows a lot about us’ Eidevall on Miedema reunion https://t.co/ubxeIJGzfx #afc #arsenal pic.twitter.com/0EQTlb9uOt

— arseblognews (@arseblognews) September 20, 2024

The immediate reunion with Miedema is probably a distraction Arsenal fans could have done without, her departure was greeted with many weeks of discussion and, in some quarters, anger that hasn’t really long died down. Reanimating the conversation and, of course, the very real prospect of Miedema scoring against Arsenal are things the fan base probably could have done without at this early stage.

For the players, they cannot focus on anything other than trying to stop her as an opponent. Arsenal v City games are almost always decided by the odd goal, for some reason they are almost never draws and they are usually won by the home team with a few exceptions, including the last time the teams played in May which saw the Gunners’ first win at the Academy Stadium since 2017.

TEAM NEWS

Steph Catley is still out with a muscle problem, as is Lina Hurtig. Eidevall says that Leah Williamson should be fit to start after being on the bench on Wednesday evening. Victoria Pelova (ACL) is out, Amanda Ilestedt is still on maternity leave following the birth of her daughter Mila three weeks ago.

SQUAD
Goalkeepers: 1.Zinsberger 14.van Domselaar 40.Williams
Defenders: 2.Fox 3.Wubben-Moy 5.L.Codina 6.Williamson 11.McCabe 26.Wienroither 62.Reid
Midfielders: 10.Little 12.Maanum 13.Walti 16.Kafaji 22.Kuhl 32.Cooney-Cross 61.Harbert
Forwards: 8.Mariona 9.Mead 19.Foord 23.Russo 25.Blackstenius 53.Lia 56.Godfrey

A WORD FROM THE BOSS
‘Manchester City are a great team, there is no way I am going to put any attention on anything other than what we need to do to be competitive in that game. We knew well in advance (about the game falling either side of a two-legged UWCL qualifier), it is not a frustration at all. We have been able to plan for that. The games coming in, there has been plenty of time now since the Olympics. If you want to play in European competitions, you need to be able to play weekdays and weekends. If we go into the group stage that is what it is going to be like.

‘In the league, if it was only important to get results against the presumable top teams, we would have won the league last season because we took nine points against the top three. I think the other teams only took four points. If that was the only thing that would be important in the season we would have won easily last season. But the proof was it was not the only important thing, every game it is important to take three points, not just these ones.’

LAST TIME OUT
When the teams met at the Academy Stadium in May, Lauren Hemp gave City a first half lead but a pair of late goals from Stina Blackstenius gave the Gunners a 2-1 victory. In the home match at Meadow Park, Steph Catley gave Arsenal the lead before Bunny Shaw equalised but Blackstenius grabbed all three points with a late winner.

THE OPPOSITION
City came within a whisker of winning their first WSL title since 2016 last season but fell at the final hurdle and the home defeat to Arsenal in May essentially wrestled the trophy from their grip. Supercharged by the goals of Bunny Shaw, Gareth Taylor’s side looked all set for the title until the final two games.

𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗦 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗙𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘

🆚 Arsenal (A)
🎙️ Gareth Taylor
🏆 @BarclaysWSL

Watch live 👉 https://t.co/Y5qVFnOkrU pic.twitter.com/SHLhXhZWzt

— Manchester City Women (@ManCityWomen) September 20, 2024

This season, they will certainly have UWCL group stage football to contend with for the first time since 2021-22 having comfortably beat Paris FC 5-0 in France during the week in the first leg of their UWCL qualifier. While Arsenal struggled to finish chances in Sweden, it wouldn’t have escaped many fans notice that Miedema opened the scoring for City in France.

Miedema has joined to play just behind Bunny Shaw, with Lauren Hemp and one of Chloe Kelly or Mary Fowler either side, they are a frightening prospect going forward. Their style is distinctive, nobody makes more passes than City, nobody completes more passes and nobody crosses into the box more often. Those are the consistent threats, as well as Shaw’s nerveless finishing, Arsenal will have to be wary of on Sunday.

PLAYER TO WATCH

Injuries to Lia Walti and Victoria Pelova have given Kyra Cooney-Cross the chance to stake a claim in central midfield and she is taking it so far, keeping Walti out of the team for the time being. Cooney-Cross started this fixture back in May and she had a very crucial role, as I am sure she will again on Sunday.

When Arsenal play City, they try to avoid using their full-backs too much when playing out from the back and aim to keep the ball in central areas until they are inside City’s half. This is because of City’s unusual ‘pincer press’ and because their aim is to force turnovers out wide, where Hemp and Kelly can gobble them up and regurgitate them into the penalty area for Bunny Shaw.

Watch out for Arsenal building up in more of a box shape from their goal kicks with Cooney-Cross and Little parallel to the centre-halves in build up. This means Kyra and Kim will have to take the ball in central areas under pressure but if they can spin through that first phase of City pressure and prevent Arsenal from needing to use their full-backs to exit, that will hold one of the keys to this game.

PREDICTED LINE-UP

Subs: 3.Wubben-Moy 13.Walti 14.van Domselaar 16.Kafaji 19.Foord 22.Kuhl 25.Blackstenius 26.Wienroither 40.Williams

HOW TO CATCH THE GAME
The game kicks off at 12.30pm on Sunday at Emirates Stadium and will be shown live on Sky Sports Football in the UK.

COMING UP
We will have post-match reaction from Jonas Eidevall on the sire shortly after full-time, as well as the usual analysis piece on Monday with graphics from Miedemastuff. Starting this season, myself and Jamie Spangher will record an Arsenal Women Arsecast after every weekend WSL game, that will be out either Monday evening or Tuesday morning. We will also have a vlog for this game from Emirates Stadium on the Arseblog YouTube channel on Monday.