Arsenal v Crystal Palace Women Preview
THE LOWDOWN
Arsenal welcome newly promoted Crystal Palace to Emirates Stadium on Sunday at 2.45pm in the WSL. The Gunners opened their campaign with a deserved 1-0 win at Brighton thanks to an early goal from debutante Lisa Baum. Renee Slegers’ side ran up 1.38 in XG compared to Brighton’s 0.75, so a 1-0 win was about right.
Brighton away is a tricky fixture and Arsenal ground it out, it wasn’t the most entertaining or fluent game. There were four players making their full debuts for the club in that game too and it showed at times. At Brighton the result was excellent and the performance was ok. With Palace set to visit the Emirates, fans will be looking at an ‘excellent’ for performance and result.
With a good bill of health, Slegers had to leave two internationals out of her matchday squad, regardless, at Brighton and she will have a similar choice here- in fact, the choice is likely to be even more difficult with Elisa de Almeida ready to come into the squad. Last time out it was summer signings Reuteler and Cerci, I imagine Slegers will look for a different solution on this occasion.
Palace has the potential to be a ‘trap game’ with games against Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City immediately following this. Arsenal simply have to bank the full points here because the chances of dropped points in the coming weeks are heightened. Slegers and her staff will be looking to see evidence of increased fluency in this game too.
TEAM NEWS
Daphne van Domselaar (knee), Michelle Agyemang (ACL) and Katie Reid (ACL) are unavailable but new signing Elisa de Almeida is ready to come into the squad with a week of full training with her new teammates behind her. That means that Renee Slegers is going to have to leave three senior players out of the matchday squad for this game.
Goalkeepers: 16.Misa 28.Borbe 40.Damm
Defenders: 2.Fox 3.Wubben-Moy 5.De Almeida 6.Williamson 7.Catley 22.Batlle 24.Hinds 31.Holmberg
Midfielders: 4.Stanway 8.Mariona 10.Little(c) 12.L.Maanum 14.Reuteler 32.Cooney-Cross
Forwards: 9.Foord 11.Smith 18.Kelly 19.Baum 23.Russo 25.Blackstenius 29.Cerci
Unavailable: 1.van Domselaar 17.Agyemang 26.Reid
A WORD FROM THE BOSS
‘The league growing and I think everything is developing, so automatically, the games will be better, so far more competitive. I think it’s really early in season still, there’s only one round played. So let’s see over time how things develop, but definitely, I think Crystal Palace Everton was a competitive game and same at Birmingham creating issues especially the first half against City, that has been good and hopefully we can keep the standard so competition is high in the league.
‘Every game has its challenges if it’s not tactical then it’s something else. And that’s the exciting part of this role and the exciting part of the sport that we now have and the versatility, the dynamics within the squad. But football should always be fun. We always have to remember why we started playing as as little kids and if you see kids playing in a park, they’re all chasing the ball. Everyone wants to ball and they want to dribble and try to score goals.
‘I think we should always stay close to that, but of course, we play at a different level now where a lot of discipline is needed as well, but that joy for the game, the love for the game is important. And I think in our environment to keep the lightness when we are light and dynamic and fresh and positive, we normally get the best out of ourselves.’
LAST TIME OUT
When these teams met in the Subway Cup quarter-final in Sutton in December, Arsenal ran out 2-0 winners thanks to goals from Laia Codina and Stina Blackstenius. When the teams last met in the WSL in North London, the Gunners were 5-0 winners in January 2025 with Williamson, Russo, Mead and Mariona (x2) on the score sheet.
THE OPPOSITION
The Eagles were promoted to the WSL for the first time for the 2024-25 season but were relegated pretty easily in their debut season. With the WSL expansion for this season, Palace were promoted as runners-up on this occasion with a lot of the core that earned them promotion two years earlier. Now they are coached by up and coming manager Jo Potter.
The nature of their promotion push under Jo Potter was nothing short of remarkable. An indifferent start had them languishing near the bottom but 12 wins in their last 14 games enabled them to pip Charlton to the second automatic promotion spot on the final day. Recruitment has been promising this summer too with a good mixture of experienced WSL players and young players with something to prove.
They kept hold of the highly rated Annabel Blanchard and brought in veteran striker Beth England, as well as veteran centre-half Molly Bartip. They have signed former Arsenal and current France goalkeeper Pauline Peyraud-Magnin. Arsenal trainee Teyah Goldie and Fuka Tsunoda arrive on loan with the hope of kickstarting their careers. They won their opening WSL game 1-0 at Everton last weekend, which shows they are better equipped than they were last time around.
PLAYER TO WATCH
Lisa Baum’s moment of individual brilliance won Arsenal the game at Brighton. It was an exceptional way for the 19-year-old summer signing from RB Leipzig to announce herself after a very encouraging pre-season. Considering fellow attacking signings Selina Cerci and Geraldine Reuteler did not make the matchday squad, it says a lot that Baum started ahead of seasoned campaigners like Chloe Kelly and Caitlin Foord.
Baum cannot be expected to pluck rabbits from hats in every single game, she is 19 and will experience ups and downs. But Slegers spoke to Arseblog News after the Brighton game about why she entrusted the young winger, ‘I have to look at what qualities we need and who has been performing and if I look at Lisa, yes, she’s 19 years old, but the way she presents herself, she’s so mature, she’s so calm, so composed, such a good understanding of the game.
‘Works extremely hard in training and actually off the pitch as well very engaged in meetings. And she’s so invested and she’s had a really good preseason and we felt she was ready to start.’ There is a buzz around this player which is natural for an exciting new signing but she does possess a profile in the wide positions that Arsenal have arguably lacked in recent seasons.
MY PREDICTED LINE-UP
Subs: 3.Wubben-Moy 5.De Almeida 12.L.Maanum 14.Reuteler 18.Kelly 24.Hinds 25.Blackstenius 28.Borbe 32.Cooney-Cross
HOW TO CATCH THE GAME
The match takes place at Emirates Stadium on Sunday at 2.45pm and will be shown live on the BBC in the UK. Full global listings are available here.
COMING UP
We will post the line-ups around an hour before kickoff, Aidan Gibson will have his on the whistle match report and we will have every word from Renee Slegers’ post-match press conference. In a new feature for this season, I will write a short takeaway from the game some time on Sunday evening too. Jamie and I will have a podcast for you on Monday.
Don’t forget to sign up to our free Arsenal Women Weekly Newsletter.
The post Arsenal v Crystal Palace Women Preview appeared first on Arseblog News - the Arsenal news site.