Arsenal ran away with three well-deserved points to help their chances in the title race with a 5-star performance as they thank the Gooners for breaking yet another WSL attendance record of 60,160.
The first thing we looked at was the Arsenal team news. There was no sign of Leah Williamson due to a minor hamstring injury, meaning she will have to wait for her first England cap since her ACL injury as she has had to withdraw from the squad, being replaced by Manchester United's Millie Turner. The team hopes that she can recover to full fitness and start getting full 90 minutes under her belt and hoping she can make an appearance to experience a full capacity Emirates in the North London Derby against rivals Tottenham, but more interestingly, we seen Alessia Russo, Caitlin Foord and Manuela Zinsberger on the bench for Stina Blackstenius, Cloé Lacasse and Sabrina D’Angelo which had a lot of the support a bit stunned but in a good way, especially seeing Blackstenius start in arguably Arsenal’s biggest match of the season in terms of what was at stake for their title hopes. Stina has seen her minutes limited this season due to the big summer signing of Russo as before this fixture, she had only started two matches in her 11 appearances in the league this season prior to this fixture compared to starting in 20 of the 22 league games last season, although popping up scoring four goals in the 23/24 league campaign, alongside what we have seen her do in the cup competitions as well, it felt like a well-deserved start for the Swede as she believes she cannot be in a better environment than she is now at Arsenal, despite the season being personally “quite challenging sometimes” due to competing for her spot against Russo it seems.
Man United started the game strong as they were on the front foot in the first five minutes, when Nikita Parris intercepted a loose back pass from Laia Codina but D’Angelo managed to come out quick enough to clear the danger and a Katie Zelem free-kick that seen D’Angelo spill the ball but that was deemed as a free-kick to due Lucía García’s involvement with the goalkeeper.
Shortly after the United chances, the momentum shifted into Arsenal’s favour, when Beth Mead tried to reach Steph Catley’s cross from the left-hand side, but Gemma Evans managed to prevent Mead from meeting the ball and seen it behind for a corner, which ultimately led to Arsenal’s first goal as Katie McCabe swung the ball low into the box that past a few United players but hit off Geyse, who seemed to know nothing about it. From replays it looked as if Mary Earps would have gotten to the ball from Geyse’s deflection but unknown to Maya Le Tissier, it took a nick off her after Geyse, that seen it go past Earps into the back of the net.
The Gunners seen a lot more attacks in the first half with very little to highlight from a Man United attacking perspective.
Ten minutes from the half-time whistle, Victoria Pelova made a well-timed run and passed the ball into Blackstenius on the edge of the six yard box but the ball was just behind her as Zelem tried to clear it but Lacasse with a great, fast reaction was smart to the clearance as she headed the ball into the net to see Arsenal have a two goal cushion and that only upped the confidence as just a little over five minutes later Lacasse crossed the ball into the box that Captain Kim Little flicked on to Mead who ran to challenge Evans, but Mead dipped her shoulder and took the ball with her as Evans, who missed the ball, swiped at Mead and brought her down as the referee straight away, pointed to the spot and at this point there doesn’t seem to be any defensive organisation from United. Evans tried to plead her innocence to the official but ultimately the penalty stood and Kim Little is the one who takes on the pressure who calmly slots the ball into the bottom left-hand corner as Earps dives the wrong way. Arsenal went into the tunnel at half-time with a three-goal advantage that all but seemed to have confirmed the three points for the Gunners.
Half-time changes seen Evans come off for Leah Galton, assuming to not run the risk of receiving a red card having been on a yellow and Pelova came off for Kyra Cooney-Cross.
The second half was a lot more evenly matched as once again, Man United started the half strong with García and Parris being at the heart of the attacks combining with one another, but that Arsenal defence stood their ground whether it be from good challenges to regain possession or a good offside trap. Midway through the second half Mead managed to rattle TheWoodwork twice, which would’ve destroyed any hope of a comeback from happening if any of those chances crossed the goal line. Stina Blackstenius came off shortly after the Mead chances as she received a loud pop from the sell-out crowd as she was replaced by her counterpart, Russo.
In the 75th minute we seen Vivianne Miedema on the pitch at the Emirates for the first time since her ACL injury which was a great moment for all involved and Nikita Parris shortly made way after for Melvine Malard but even though she left the game with no goal contributions to add on to her already amazing season, she shined for her team as everyone is still starching their heads on why she never made the cut for the Lionesses squad.
In the last minute of the game United had a corner that was played short to Ella Toone, who quickly crossed the ball into the box that García met with her head to make it 3-1, which was only a consolation goal but wiped away Arsenal’s clean sheet that they would have been frustrated at losing so late on.
From what we seen with the changes in the front line by Jonas Eidevall, Cloé Lacasse deserves to start in more games as she was so important, especially with her goal to ensure Arsenal took the lead and just the overall trouble she caused in the final third, by the end of the season we could see that she is one of the key players to the outcome that ends up standing and just Arsenal in the final third overall, you could see that's where they wanted to keep possession and play their football and that's what got the Gunners their result and if they keep this mentality up, what team can stop them from getting these sort of results and they make their final push to finish the season strong and leapfrog Chelsea and Manchester City to the WSL title.
How the table shapes up after gameweek 14!
Arsenal go seven points clear of United in the table, as they stay sat in fourth place now only two points ahead of Liverpool who beat Brighton 1-0 away from home thanks to a Ceri Holland goal, who also seen two yellow cards and was sent off in the last minute, and Tottenham can’t close the gap on United or Liverpool as they were beaten at home by Aston Villa 2-1 with former Gunner Jordan Nobbs scoring the winner and with Manchester City claiming the three points at Kingsmeadow on Friday night against table toppers Chelsea, the Gunners move within three points of both teams to make the title race interesting once again.