Arsenal v Manchester United Women Preview
THE LOWDOWN
Arsenal play at home to Manchester United in the WSL on Saturday at 5.30pm at Emirates Stadium. After dropping two points at home to Crystal Palace last weekend and with games on the horizon away at Manchester City and Chelsea, it is simply imperative that Renee Slegers’ side pick up three points on Saturday.
Ordinarily, a game against Manchester United would see Arsenal as slight favourites but it would also be seen as a very tough fixture. That still could well (and likely will) be the case, but given United have lost 2-0 to LCL and 5-0 to Chelsea. United look to be in disarray and there will be a great deal of external pressure on the Gunners to add to United’s woes.
Marc Skinner’s United side ground out three clean sheets against Arsenal last season across the WSL and Subway Cup. Eva Olid is in charge now and it remains to be seen how she will set her United team up in this game. However she does, no quarter will be given if Arsenal do not take the points.
The draw with Palace brought a lot of bad feelings flooding back to the fan base given the team drew six WSL games last season, which cost them the title. They created more than enough to win the Palace game but conversion was a significant issue. It’s one they need to solve immediately in an unforgiving league, I suspect United will look to tighten up after their heavy defeat at home to Chelsea last weekend.
TEAM NEWS
New signing Elisa de Almeida misses out with a muscle injury, Daphne van Domselaar is tracking to return in approximately October from her knee injury. Michelle Agyemang and Katie Reid are still recovering from ACLs. It means two senior players will have to be omitted from the matchday squad.
Available squad
GOALKEEPERS: 16.Misa 28.Borbe 40.Damm
DEFENDERS: 2.Fox 3.Wubben-Moy 6.Williamson 7.Catley 22.O.Batlle 24.Hinds 31.Holmberg
MIDFIELDERS: 4.Stanway 8.Mariona 10.Little 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 5.de Almeida 17.Agyemang 26.Reid
A WORD FROM THE BOSS
‘The best thing is always to get back onto the grass and execute. I think psychologically that’s good as well for everyone to be able to action things. So we’ve looked at some things. Of course, we were happy with our dominance in the game and our entries in the final third, entries in the box, amount of shots, but we’ve also been looking at how we can create even bigger opportunities for ourselves when the spaces are really tight and there’s a lot of bodies in the box.
‘So what are the moments in the game and how do we create spaces? We’ve applied some ideas, we’ve reviewed together with the players, we’ve been on the training page and the players’ reaction has been really, really good. They’ve been working hard in training.
‘We have everyone in a great position. We have good fitness and we have a lot of quality and we think over time it’s going to benefit us. We’re also now going into short turnarounds with midweek Champions League games so we’re going to need everyone as ready and as fresh as possible. We definitely think that on the long run, long term, this is really good for us.’
LAST TIME OUT
When the teams met in this fixture last season, it proved to be a pretty turgid 0-0 draw at the Emirates in January.
THE OPPOSITION
United came into the season somewhat in disarray. Long-term manager Marc Skinner resigned after five years in the role with reports suggesting he had become disillusioned over a lack of investment at the club. It is pretty much the same reason that his predecessor, Casey Stoney, resigned in 2021. It led to a disrupted pre-season during which United had been quiet in the transfer market.
The club have briefed that they believe the current spending in elite women’s football is unsustainable and they want to focus on youth production, which many supporters have interpreted as a lack of interest from INEOS, who are making the football decisions at the club. United quickly parachuted Spanish coach Eva Olid into the role after an outstanding spell in charge of Hearts.
But Olid has had little time to work with the team and did not have the time or resource to bring in her own players. The fixture computer also handed them a very tough start with an away game at London City Lionesses, followed by Chelsea at home and Arsenal away. It has been an unforgiving backdrop and the question now is whether Olid continues to try to integrate her style in this game, or whether United take a pause, set up defensively and try to build from there.
PLAYER TO WATCH
Mariona Caldentey has been subbed in both WSL games so far this season and, on both occasions, the game was very much in the balance. That is highly unusual. Two games is an insufficient sample size to sound any alarm bells but it suggests that Mariona has been reacclimatising to playing in a slightly more advanced role than she has been doing for the last 18 months.
Kim Little and Mariona have been such a fixture at the base of the midfield that they have defined the team. The arrival of Georgia Stanway adds quality and variety to the engine room but it’s also fair to say it’s a big change and one Mariona and Little are still adjusting to. Frankly the Spaniard has not looked as involved or influential in the number 10 role. Yet.
But this game would be a good time to change that and I would expect to see the Little, Stanway and Mariona trio in this game. I suspect United will compromise a tad on their long-term style aspiration and will look to lock the game down, especially as Arsenal have shown a weakness for such a tactic in the past. Mariona ought to be the perfect player to unlock a United defence that has looked soft and a United midfield whose press has looked uncoordinated to this point.
MY PREDICTED LINE UP
Subs: 3.Wubben-Moy 12.L.Maanum 14.Reuteler 18.Kelly 25.Blackstenius 28.Borbe 29.Cerci 31.Holmberg 32.Cooney-Cross
HOW TO CATCH THE GAME
The match kicks off at 5.30pm on Saturday at Emirates Stadium and will be shown live on Sky Sports in the UK. Full global listings are available here.
COMING UP
Pre-match
• Line-up posted one hour before kickoff
Post-match
• Aidan Gibson’s on the whistle match report
• Every word of Renee Slegers’ post-match press conference around an hour after the final whistle
• One takeaway from the game published a few hours after full-time
Sunday
• Matchday vlog
Monday
• Arsenal Women Arsecast with Tim and Jamie
• Coverage of pre-match media from London Colney ahead of Arsenal v Koge on Tuesday night
Tuesday
• We do it all again! All the usual in-stadium coverage of Arsenal v HB Koge
And don’t forget to sign up to our free Weekly Arsenal Women Newsletter .
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