Arsenal’s 4th Round Women’s FA Cup tie at home to Bristol City has been rescheduled for Wednesday 29 January at Meadow Park, 7.45pm kickoff. The initial tie was postponed on Sunday after subzero temperatures across the country.
Our understanding is that Arsenal ideally wanted to play the tie on 15 January but that date didn’t suit Bristol City, the game will now take place between WSL away games at Chelsea and Manchester City.
Had the game taken place the squad probably would have given us some clues about January exits with players not wanting to be cuptied. Kathrine Kuhl is likely to leave in January, as per Emma Sanders of the BBC, London City Lionesses are interested in taking Freya Godfrey on loan but need to make room in their squad since they are currently at the squad limit.
Other academy products such as Laila Harbert, Katie Reid and Maddy Earl could well go out on loan for the second half of the season with Victoria Pelova training again following an ACL injury and Amanda Ilestedt close to returning from maternity leave. We are expecting an announcement on the manager position this week.
The new midweek date, falling between the two most important WSL fixtures that are must-wins to have the slightest chance of catching Chavski for the title, is not ideal.
Still, it should give minutes to Manu/ Naomi, Rosa, Laura, Katie R, Liai C, LWM, Ke K,Viv Lia, Freya G, Layla H, Maddie E backed up by half a dozen seniors.
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Yes, let’s see it as an opportunity rather than an issue.
Most of the young players will be out on loan by then. Ke will almost certainly not be at the club on 29 Jan and if she is, she probably won’t play so as not to be cuptied anyway.