Arsenal v Everton Women Preview

THE LOWDOWN
Arsenal take on Everton at Emirates Stadium in the WSL on Sunday afternoon with the vanishingly rare luxury of an entire week to prepare for the game. Not only do Arsenal have a seven day gap between games for one of the few occasions this season, their opponents, Everton, played in the Conti Cup on Wednesday evening.

Having played four Champions League qualifiers and with a leggy performance at Leicester on Sunday, the interval was needed. It has also given the Gunners time to get defenders Steph Catley and Leah Williamson back into the squad following injury, which is needed with Laura Wienroither’s injury last weekend.

A few of us spoke to Caitlin Foord ahead of Sunday’s home game against Everton.

🔴On playing on the right wing
⚪️How finishing the Leicester game at left-back came about
🔴Playing Everton’s back five
⚪️The Emirates feeling like home
🔴Versatility v consistency 👇🏻 https://t.co/jaXxtkR2fi

— Tim Stillman (@Stillmanator) October 4, 2024

Brian Sorensen’s Everton play in a very similar manner to Arsenal’s recent UWCL opponents Hacken and that preparation will prove useful for Jonas Eidevall’s team. It marks the beginning of a massive week with an away tie at Bayern Munich on Wednesday night followed by a big WSL clash at home to Chelsea next Saturday.

Eidevall will need to use his squad over the coming week and showed a willingness to do so at Leicester last weekend, light rotation is going to be the order of the day with a couple of changes in each game. It remains to be seen how that might manifest itself against the Toffees on Sunday.

TEAM NEWS

Leah Williamson returns from concussion, while Steph Catley also returns from a muscle injury for this game. Jonas Eidevall says that the injury that forced Laura Wienroither out of the starting line-up last weekend was ‘minor’ but that this game will come too soon for her. Lina Hurtig is also still working her way back to full fitness. Victoria Pelova (ACL) and Amanda Ilestedt (maternity leave) are unavailable.

Squad
Goalkeepers: 1.Zinsberger 14.van Domselaar 40.Williams
Defenders: 2.Fox 3.Wubben-Moy 5.L.Codina 6.Williamson 7.Catley 11.McCabe 62.Reid
Midfielders: 10.Little 12.Maanum 13.Walti 16.Kafaji 22.Kuhl 32.Cooney-Cross 61.Harbert
Forwards: 9.Mead 19.Foord 23.Russo 25.Blackstenius 53.Lia 56.Godfrey

A WORD FROM THE BOSS
There were a lot of positives (from the Leicester game) but also things we could have done better. We played that game in tough circumstances, coming off a huge Champions League game on Thursday night that took a lot of physical and mental focus and having to refocus and recharge for an away game on Sunday against a tough Leicester team with a whole week of preparation and setting up tricky situations for us.

I am under no illusion that this is a very competitive WSL season and we will need to be at our best and to find ways to win and we did exactly that on Sunday and those are the positives I will focus on, knowing there will be games where things will flow a little bit easier for us. But during the season, if you want to be successful and you want to be consistent, you have to find ways to win under all those circumstances.

LAST TIME OUT
When the teams met in Merseyside in April, the teams drew 1-1. Alessia Russo gave Arsenal a late lead but Izzy Hobson grabbed a stoppage time equaliser. In the home game in January, Caitlin Foord gave Arsenal the lead at Meadow Park before Snoeijs equalised but Beth Meadow popped up with a first half winner to make it 2-1 to Arsenal.

THE OPPOSITION
Everton have endured a difficult start to the season with ACL injuries in both of Everton’s opening games, Italian winger Aurora Galli ruptured her ACL in the opening day defeat at Brighton, while Spanish forward Inma Gabarro suffered the same fate in the 1-0 home defeat to Manchester United last weekend.

Everton are a well coached, well organised team who play with a back five against the big teams and they play very much like Hacken, only Aston Villa had more possession in their own penalty area than Everton last season. They pass around the defence and they pass in central areas and they try to attract the opponent into those areas before quickly playing through them.

Taking the positives into Arsenal. 👊 pic.twitter.com/nInctETIug

— Everton Women (@EvertonWomen) October 4, 2024

The issue for Everton has been goals. They haven’t scored one in either of their league games so far this campaign and only the bottom two from last season, Bristol City and West Ham, scored fewer goals than the Toffees. But defensively their numbers were far more mid table. Sorensen’s side pose lots of issues with their tactics, with their new owners about to arrive, hopefully they can get greater numbers into their squad.

PLAYER TO WATCH

Frida Maanum has been nominated for WSL Player of the Month for September. She opened the scoring in both WSL games against Manchester City and Leicester City, the latter of which was a winning goal. She also scored the winner against Rosenborg in the Champions League and scored from the bench against Hacken.

Last season, her average shot distance in the WSL was 18.3 yards, this season so far it is 15.1. Now, we are only two games into the league season so it is too small a sample size to suggest meaningful change, but when you factor in her close range efforts in the Champions League this season, I think it is fair to say she is picking up more opportune positions in the area.

Jonas Eidevall confirmed, when asked by Arseblog News on Friday, that they had worked on this facet of Frida’s game. Just as important for her will be a sense of continuity, last season she did not start consecutive games at any point. This season, while Kafaji acclimatises, she has a clearer run at the number 10 spot and with four goals so far this season, has a good chance to try to fix it down.

PREDICTED LINE UP

Subs: 6.Williamson, 7.Catley, 14.van Domselaar, 16.Kafaji, 19.Foord, 22.Kuhl, 25.Blackstenius, 32.Cooney-Cross, 56.Godfrey.

HOW TO CATCH THE GAME
The game kicks off at 2pm on Sunday at Emirates Stadium and will be broadcast live on the WSL YouTube channel.

COMING UP
We will have the usual on the whistle match report from Aidan Gibson, full reaction to the game from Jonas Eidevall on the site shortly after full-time and Jamie and I will have a podcast for you poring over the game on Monday afternoon. We will also be in Munich for all the best coverage of the Champions League tie against Bayern on Wednesday.