West Ham United Women v Arsenal Preview

THE LOWDOWN
Arsenal travel to Dagenham to take on West Ham United in the WSL on Sunday afternoon under the charge of interim Head Coach Renee Slegers. The Chigwell Construction Stadium has not been a happy hunting ground for the Gunners in recent years. Despite winning 2-0 there on the final day of the 2021-22 season, Chelsea overturned a 2-1 deficit against Manchester United and took the title by a point.

In January 2023, Arsenal were held to a 0-0 draw there and last season, the Gunners fell to a 2-1 defeat despite taking a first half lead. West Ham will again provide stern opposition for Arsenal in what is a must win game ahead of the international break. Having won only one of their opening four WSL games, failure to win here will yield questions as to whether the team can qualify for the UWCL, let alone win the title.

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— arseblognews (@arseblognews) October 18, 2024

On Wednesday evening, Slegers made one enforced change to the team that lost at home to Chelsea and she told Arseblog News she felt giving the players continuity and stability was important in a tumultuous week that saw Jonas Eidevall resign as Head Coach on Tuesday morning.

I would fully expect Slegers to continue with a similar policy in East London to try to get the team back on track in the league before the international break and a crucial visit to Manchester United on November 3rd. My understanding is that a permanent appointment is unlikely (not impossible) prior to the United game but Arsenal are in a mode where they have to go game by game to rekindle their season.

TEAM NEWS

Lotte Wubben-Moy trained on Friday after missing Wednesday’s win over Valerenga with concussion. There is no new injury news according to Slegers, so Victoria Pelova (ACL), Laura Wienroither (knee) and Amanda Ilestedt (maternity leave) are out.

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
Forwards: 8.Mariona, 9.Mead, 17.Hurtig, 19.Foord, 23.Russo, 25.Blackstenius, 53.Lia, 56.Godfrey

A WORD FROM THE BOSS
Given the lack of familiarity with Renee for fans, we are choosing to print her press conferences in full at the moment so people can get as full a picture of her as possible. You can read every word from Slegers’ pre-match press conference here.

LAST TIME OUT
When the teams met at the Chigwell Construction Stadium in February, West Ham were 2-1 winners. Alessia Russo gave Arsenal a first half lead, but a Vivienne Asseyi penalty and a goal from Hawa Cissoko in the second half gave the Irons the points.

THE OPPOSITION
Under the guidance of Rehanne Skinner, West Ham are a dogged opponent. They have a very defined style of football, last season West Ham were second bottom of the WSL for attempted short passes and fourth for attempted long passes, they were fourth for switches of play (all this considering they averaged the second lowest possession in the league) and third for fouls committed.

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🔂 History repeating itself
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Read Rehanne's talking points before the Arsenal clash 🗞️

— West Ham United Women (@westhamwomen) October 18, 2024

They sit deep, often in a back five and then they play directly to their trio of attacking threats. In Vivienne Asseyi, they have someone capable of running the channels and carrying the ball long distances. Dagný Brynjarsdottir is almost certainly the most potent aerial threat in the division and striker Riko Ueki is very good at drifting in behind centre-halves and looking for chances in the area.

West Ham were second bottom in the WSL for touches in the middle third last season, they don’t play through the thirds very often. They defend tight and deep and then they look to get the ball to Brynjarsdottir’s head or for Asseyi to run onto ASAP, with Ueki drifting ahead of the pair of them to feed off their work.

PLAYER TO WATCH

Caitlin Foord was voted the Arsenal Player of the Month award for September. In truth, given Arsenal’s form in the opening phase of the season, it wasn’t a hotly contested gong. However, I think when a player plays all the time, sometimes it is easy to forget or overlook the things that make them important to the team.

Foord has sat on the bench for a few games this season after the arrival of Mariona and when she has, we have seen that Arsenal have missed the true width and structure that she gives to the attack. She is an important player in balancing out Arsenal’s attacking attributes.

But a consistent question of Caitlin has been her level of end product and she has picked up on that in a big way this season, scoring six goals and notching up three assists (‘spiritually’ she teed up Frida Maanum’s goal against Rosenborg too but it’s not counted as an assist since the goalkeeper got a touch on the cross). Foord has shown how important she is to Arsenal and stretching the pitch and creating confusion between the wide centre-half and right wing-back will be key for Arsenal.

PREDICTED LINE UP

Subs: 1.Zinsberger, 3.Wubben-Moy, 7.Catley, 12.L.Maanum, 16.Kafaji, 17.Hurtig, 22.Kuhl, 25.Blackstenius, 32.Cooney-Cross

HOW TO CATCH THE GAME
The game takes place at Dagenham & Redbridge’s Chigwell Construction Stadium at 3pm on Sunday and will be streamed live and free on the Barclays WSL YouTube channel.

COMING UP
We will have every word from Renee Slegers’ post-match press conference on the site shortly after the game, as well as Aidan Gibson’s on the whistle match report. Jamie and I will have an Arsenal Women Arsecast looking over the game early Monday afternoon and the usual match analysis piece will go up later on Monday or on Tuesday morning.