Arsenal’s biggest and most recurrent issue is that they don’t score enough goals and that they don’t convert their pressure into goals often enough. Last season, they scored 18 fewer goals than champions Chelsea. So far this season they are already trailing Chelsea by 13 goals having played a game more. They trail Brighton by four goals in the league. It is a big problem and has been for a while.
This was very much the theme of our questions for interim manager Renee Slegers post-game. ‘I agree, that is the frustrating part of today. Performance wise there are so many positives and I think we are getting closer to converting more because we find better areas when we get the ball into the box, now it is about how do we time the runs? The detail on the final pass and the run, how many players do we have in the box? I think we are one step further, we get the ball into the box more often in good positions.’
Against United, Arsenal touched the ball in the opponent’s area 49 times. United touched the ball in Arsenal’s area 10 times. You cannot draw 1-1 in that scenario but Arsenal did. However, Slegers’ assessment that the team’s box entries are getting better was, in my view, fair. Arsenal’s domination of Manchester United was far from sterile (she also suggested four shots on target from a total of 16 shots was not good enough).
But, a green shoot was the performance of Alessia Russo upfront, who scored her first WSL goal of the season. Russo created danger throughout the game and with five shots and a goal, those look closer to elite level striker numbers in a fixture of this magnitude. Maybe she should have scored more than once but, ultimately, being a striker is a volume game and this was comfortably Russo’s best and highest volume game of the season. Let’s look on the bright side and assess why she generated so much threat.
Arsenal win a throw-in in the United half and McCabe thinks really quickly to collect a ball from the cone on the side of the pitch and restart the match when United are not set.
As McCabe throws it, Russo looks to her right and sees Caitlin Foord.
I could be wrong but I suspect a fortnight or so ago, she looks for the pass to Foord or Maanum here. But Russo collects the ball and her first thought is to drive forward and shoot. Foord and Maanum are in good positions but not in ‘must pass’ positions so Russo takes responsibility and shoots marginally wide. This is what you want your striker to do and if they do it continuously, they will score plenty.
Russo’s hold-up play was also exceptional in this game. Foord sends this cross in and in Millie Turner, United have one of the best aerial centre-backs in the league.
Russo does incredibly well to get in front of Turner and then produce a deft chested pass to Maanum inside the area. You could see early on that her tail was up for this game.
Naalsund misplaces a pass out from the right-back area here and Maanum is onto it with a first time pass to Russo.
This time Russo doesn’t even look for a teammate, she doesn’t hesitate, as soon as Maanum snaps the pass into her, her only thought is getting a shot off. This one deflects off Turner narrowly over. Again, this is the level of assertiveness that has been missing from her game in the early part of the season that seems to be coming back to life.
Walti plays a quick pass into Russo here and you can see that her head is up, looking for her teammates.
One of Russo’s great qualities has always been her economy of touches, she has a way of receiving the ball and spinning in one movement and taking one touch instead of two. Here she pirouettes on Walti’s pass and releases Maanum out wide and Arsenal are in a good position. Russo had that conviction back in her play on Sunday.
Here we see Arsenal with another quick restart and Russo makes the run from McCabe’s throw again.
There isn’t a big tactical secret here, this is just confident, assertive play once again, taking on Le Tissier and being happy to put the ball in on her left foot. She finds a good cross to Maanum here and it’s another chance for Arsenal.
As Mariona steps over this McCabe pull back, Russo is nice and sharp to it even though it is behind her. She doesn’t stand on ceremony, she immediately wants the ball.
Again, her first thought is to turn and shoot. A few weeks ago, I am certain she tries to pass to Mead or bumps the ball off to Walti. Russo was hungry for a goal.
Let’s compare to the Chelsea game last month when Little feeds the ball into Russo in the box here.
And she just cannot bump it off to Mariona quickly enough before shuffling away from the centre of the goal.
Arsenal’s ability to sustain pressure and their press improved when Mariona moved centrally and Beth Mead came on. Here Mariona nicks the ball off Clinton and Russo is already positioned aggressively between the United centre-halves.
The cross doesn’t quite have enough whip on it and Russo has to generate all the power, nevertheless, she should probably go across goal here. In the end, Tullis-Joyce is in a good position to save.
Williamson floats a ball forward here and Russo tussles with Turner for it. Turner is one of the more difficult WSL centre-halves to shake off.
Russo wins the tussle and then drives towards goal positively and Turner is left with little choice but to grab Russo’s shirt and take the booking.
The kicker is this touch here, where Russo, instead of continuing towards the goal line, she touches the ball inwards and drives towards goal. Again, a few weeks ago I think she might not have done this.
Russo gets the goal she deserves on 62 minutes and before the finish, she drifts away from the area to collect this pass from Williamson. We can see that it commits Turner away from her spot.
Russo collects, turns and spins the ball out to Mead. Now we can see Turner running back because she knows she cannot get close enough to make a challenge.
It’s a great run from Emily Fox off the shoulder of Melvine Malard (you can see in the background that Grace Clinton has spotted it and is frantically shouting at Malard to track).
The failure to track Fox means Turner again has to jump out of her spot and Russo has the intelligence to pull away from goal here for the cut back and puts Arsenal ahead with a good finish across the goalkeeper.
From this angle, you can see the moment Russo just holds her run for a second to lose Le Tissier, before taking a step back to make herself available for the cut back. Strikers work on these tiny, almost imperceptible movements all the time in training.
It also bears more than a passing resemblance to a goal she scores against Arsenal two seasons ago in this fixture.
Scoring at a ground she knows so well 🙌
Russo slots it home for @ArsenalWFC!#BarclaysWSL pic.twitter.com/P5yQKDM37k
— Barclays Women's Super League (@BarclaysWSL) November 3, 2024
We see another fairly typical striker move from Russo here as Mead gets the ball in space. She starts on the back post because she wants to sprint towards the front post to meet the ball with full momentum.
Unfortunately, the cross is a little too high and she has to stretch to meet it. But notice how often Russo is in aggressive positions when the ball breaks. Sometimes she can get too attracted to the ball and not be an option in the area when attacks progress to the final stage. That was not a problem on Sunday.
Further evidence of Russo’s relentless positivity and hunger for goals here, Catley clips the ball forward to Foord, who lays it off for Russo and, once again, there is only one thought in her mind.
Even at this angle, Russo wants to let fly and she shoots narrowly wide. You might say she should pass to Mead there and ordinarily, maybe she should but given the situation Arsenal are in and how low Russo’s confidence was a few weeks ago, I am happy to see the centre-forward take this one on.
Arsenal sub Russo for Blackstenius in the 77th minute and this was an error, in my view. I understand the logic in terms of Blackstenius’ running in behind with United needing to push on for an equaliser. But the game had not adopted that pattern at this stage. Van Domselaar touches the ball for the first time in the half on 76 minutes and it’s from a Williamson back pass. The change almost forced Arsenal to retreat a little and they lost the ability to hold the ball up and sustain pressure without Russo. The tactic was also rendered redundant by the United equaliser on 82 minutes.
This is a small example. Mariona wins this duel with Janssen but because Blackstenius’ thinking is about how to run in behind, she has peeled into the right channel. She isn’t there to meet and hold the ball up centrally.
So Le Tissier is able to collect the ball and United are able to put pressure on Arsenal. This sequence leads to the corner which yields United’s equaliser.
United’s tails are up and Arsenal need a get out as Fox rolls the ball back to van Domselaar, who logically opts to go long.
Stina has Turner at her back as van Domselaar’s pass finds its intended outlet.
But this isn’t Stina’s game, it’s Russo’s game and the ball rolls beyond Blackstenius and Turner to Le Tissier and United have possession again. Compare this to the Russo example from earlier when Turner gets a yellow card.
Again, Arsenal need an out ball here and Williamson clips the ball to Blackstenius.
This pits Blackstenius against Turner with her back to goal again. Remember that Turner is on a yellow card so if she gets turned, she is in big trouble.
But the touch isn’t tight enough and George is in to intercept. United have the ball back and build another attack. This isn’t a criticism of Blackstenius, this just isn’t her game. Arsenal were in a gun fight and they withdrew their gun in favour of a knife, if that analogy isn’t too tortured for you!
While Arsenal’s continued issues with converting pressure and dominance into goals still grates, Russo’s hunger and assertiveness in this game is a positive sign and builds on some of the good things we saw in her performance for England against Germany. If she can continue in this fashion, it will go a long way to helping Arsenal’s woes in the final third.
To me, Russo is a first class, hardworking asset. She runs back and forth for the team, holds things up, good passing, creativity and in this match the home team were able to move their defence forward after Russo went off. She kept them either busy or anxious about her presence. We lost all of the brilliant attacking momentum from that point because Stina did not have the samme affect.
Great piece, felt it really captures how much the ‘soft’ factors can make a difference in performance – russo was so unlucky in the germany game to not score (at least not a goal that stood!) and then give away a penalty so it’s a relief to see her carry some confidence and motivation into this fixture where inevitably the ~narratives~ put her even more in the spotlight than usual. Think you also make some real solid points about the stina sub inadvertently losing us 2 points – easy to say in hindsight but maybe this game needed more of… Read more »
I hope that RS, the technical team, and the analysis team are aware that the change they made was wrong. I think they could have opted for a more offensive attack, keeping Russo and Stina in the attack to kill the game. Taking advantage of the opportunity, I still can’t believe whose idea it was to put Kim to mark Mallard. It could have been Stina or another player with greater stature or more physicality to make a stronger marking inside the area.