THE LOWDOWN
Arsenal play Brighton & Hove Albion Women at Emirates Stadium on Friday night in the WSL. After last weekend’s frustrating 1-1 draw at Manchester United, the Gunners trail Dario Vidosic’s Seagulls side by four points in the table, needless to say a defeat would be unthinkable lest Arsenal fall seven points behind Brighton in November- a scenario precisely nobody would have predicted during the summer.
While Arsenal’s finishing let them down in the draw against United, they did at least look a little more threatening with 16 shots and 1.9XG produced in the game. Getting those final details right remains an urgent priority for Arsenal, only four of their 16 shots were on target at United and that accuracy rate needs to increase markedly.
This week's Arsenal Women Newsletter. Arsenal create chances and attacks that comfortably sit at title challenger level but they don't convert. This is their biggest issue by a million miles. Some thoughts on how they and the new coach can 'squeeze the lemon' and score more goals… pic.twitter.com/PJgZu4oSce
— Tim Stillman (@Stillmanator) November 6, 2024
Realistically, a title bid is probably off the table by now but qualification for the Champions League remains a crucial prize to play for and defeat would make Brighton a significant and difficult to catch opponent in that chase. But even absent the Brighton factor, Arsenal need to get their league season back on track.
A game where they do not underperform their expected goals would also be very welcome. While Russo looked incredibly sharp at United, some of the attackers around her did not get many shots off and that is all part of the process of reconnecting Arsenal with their belief and confidence.
TEAM NEWS
Lotte Wubben-Moy returns to the squad after dealing with concussion, while Laura Wienroither is back in training and could well feature on the bench. Victoria Pelova (knee) and Amanda Ilestedt (maternity leave) are still unavailable.
Goalkeepers: 1.Zinsberger 14.van Domselaar 40.Williams
Defenders: 2.Fox 3.Wubben-Moy 5.L.Codina 6.Williamson 7.Catley 11.McCabe 26.Wienroither 62.Reid
Midfielders: 10.Little 12.L.Maanum 13.Walti 16.Kafaji 22.Kuhl 32.Cooney-Cross
Forwards: 9.Mead 17.Hurtig 19.Foord 23.Russo 25.Blackstenius 53.Lia 56.Godfrey
A WORD FROM THE BOSS
They are a very good side, they got in a lot of new players for this season, good players and that is a big part of why they are performing so well. The coach has done a good job in getting good structures into the team. They are a really good team but we try to see what we can bring to the game tomorrow.
Every team has strengths and weaknesses and Brighton will have that as well. They have good individual qualities in all the units, that has made them stronger. They have setups in their game, tactically, that can be hard for opposition to solve. The way they set up in their build and invest a lot of numbers, so those are things the opposition needs to solve.
They are playing a smart game, a game they believe in, I would say high risk high reward game and we are hoping to exploit that. They do things really well and there are things we can exploit. We believe in ourselves as a team, in who we are, we have top players performing better and better, we had a good performance against United so we have big belief in ourselves.
LAST TIME OUT
When the teams met at Meadow Park on the final day of last season, the Gunners ran out 5-0 winners thanks to a brace from Alessia Russo, goals from Vivianne Miedema and Frida Maanum and an own goal from Jorelyn Carabali.
THE OPPOSITION
Brighton have been in something of an identity crisis since making the decision to part company with Hope Powell in the autumn of 2022. Powell played a defensive brand of football designed to keep the Seagulls in the league after their promotion in 2018 and succeeded in that respect but, much like the men’s team, Brighton wanted to take the next step.
"We've got two great footballing teams going against each other tomorrow night." 💪 Dario previews tomorrow's game at the Emirates Stadium. 👀⤵️
— Brighton & Hove Albion Women (@BHAFCWomen) November 7, 2024
Jens Scheuer did not last long in the post. Mel Phillips, who now heads up the Analysts Team at Arsenal, also came and went pretty swiftly. This summer they appointed Australian coach Dario Vidosic who was coaching at Melbourne City Women. Vidosic arrived promising a more progressive brand of football and, so far, he has delivered on that.
Aided by the recruitment of WSL legends such as Fran Kirby and Nikita Parris, the Seagulls have started the season strongly. Nobody passes the ball in their own defensive third more than Brighton, they are built to play out from the back, invite teams onto them and play through them. They earned a creditable home draw with Manchester United last time out.
PLAYER TO WATCH
In recent games, Steph Catley has been fielded at centre-half alongside Leah Williamson ahead of Laia Codina. Part of this is likely due to her left footedness, in women’s football there is a real dearth of top quality left-footed centre halves. The recent friendly between England and Germany saw both teams field entirely right footed back fours.
But against United, we saw McCabe and Catley occasionally swapping positions, with Catley overlapping into the left channel in accordance with her usual left-back role, with McCabe tucking inside. It’s an interesting move and one of the few derivations between Renee Slegers work so far and what we saw under Jonas Eidevall.
In prefacing Catley’s ball playing and full-back skills Arsenal have lost some height, however. United’s equaliser came from a corner for which Catley was well positioned but, frankly, it just sailed over her head because genetics. Against Brighton, height in attack is less of an issue, it will be interesting to see how this tactic develops in the coming games.
PREDICTED LINE UP
Subs: 1.Zinsberger 3.Wubben-Moy 5.L.Codina 10.Little 12.L.Maanum 16.Kafaji 17.Hurtig 22.Kuhl 25.Blackstenius
HOW TO CATCH THE GAME
The game takes place at Emirates Stadium at 7pm on Friday evening and will be streamed live and free on the Barclays WSL YouTube channel.
COMING UP
We will have Aidan Gibson’s on the whistle match report, as well as the usual analysis piece on the sire over the weekend. We will have every word from Renee Slegers’ post-match press conference online shortly after the game on Friday evening. Then Jamie and I will have a podcast looking back at the game recorded over the weekend as well.
