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Emily Keogh
MANCHESTER, England — They could be European champions, however Arsenal‘s hopes of rekindling some home glory after a six-year drought within the Ladies’s Tremendous League (WSL) could already be in tatters after Saturday’s 3-2 loss at Manchester Metropolis.
This was meant to be the season that Arsenal proved they may compete within the league. Chelsea have claimed each title since Arsenal final gained it in 2019, and although they’ve claimed the League Cup trophy twice since then, the Ladies’s Champions League victory was a press release that the Gunners ought to be thought of among the best in Europe.
However this defeat in Manchester now leaves loads of questions for coach Renée Slegers’ aspect who’ve dropped seven factors from simply 5 video games, greater than Chelsea dropped all final season. The Blues solely dropped six factors as they gained the 2024-25 title, from three attracts, and Sonia Bompastor is but to lose a WSL sport on the helm of the west London membership.
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Chelsea had been held to a draw at Manchester United on Friday — two months sooner than once they first dropped factors final season. However assuming they proceed their invincible league kind underneath Bompastor, you can not count on Chelsea to lose considerably extra factors than final time period, leaving Arsenal already trailing behind.
Throughout Manchester on Saturday, the guests had been the architects of their very own issues. It was a fantastic group transfer completed by Khadija “Bunny” Shaw that opened the scoring for Metropolis, however Arsenal’s Caitlin Foord had failed to trace Kerstin Casparij and Shaw was left open within the field regardless of two pink shirts tasked with stopping her.
Then some sloppy defending from the guests meant it didn’t take a lot for Casparij to poke house at a set piece. Our bodies had been on the road, however goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar was on the ground and finally, Arsenal had been left weak.
The successful objective, the sucker punch for Arsenal, got here within the 88th minute when summer season signing Iman Beney was given far an excessive amount of time and house on the sting of the world to take her time and pick precisely the place she wished to position the ball. It was as if Arsenal’s defence, AWOL all through a lot of the afternoon, moved in gradual movement to shut her down.
It has been a theme for Arsenal to concede first — they did so in opposition to London Metropolis Lionesses and West Ham United — however they at all times discovered a strategy to come again and win large. The Gunners did seem like they had been keen to combat till the tip, twice cancelling out Metropolis’s lead. First Mariona Caldentey received the second half off to the proper begin for Arsenal to make it 1-1, after which substitute Chloe Kelly seemed like she had grabbed the headlines on her return to her former membership within the last 10 minutes with a surprising curled end from exterior the world. However they had been creating too many points for themselves and Metropolis had an excessive amount of for them to grapple with in the long run.
On paper, Arsenal had the higher sport. Extra possession, extra passes into the ultimate third and extra touches Metropolis’s field. However their attacking feats — solely seven of their 16 probabilities had been on course — had been outmatched by Metropolis’s 9 efforts on objective from 18 pictures in complete.
It could appear too early to talk about the title race however, in a 22-match season, falling quick in only a handful of video games early within the marketing campaign is one thing that groups have by no means managed to return again from. It occurred to Metropolis within the 2022-23 season, United confronted back-to-back attracts and barely clung on to complete within the prime three as final time period progressed and even Arsenal had been at all times on the again foot following their gradual begin in that marketing campaign.
As a caveat, Arsenal’s first loss this season has come at title rivals Metropolis, and one in every of their attracts got here at United, who’re equally vying for a spot within the prime three. However sandwiched between the 2 video games was the 1-1 house draw to Aston Villa, which has cemented a detrimental narrative and has left followers bitterly disillusioned with the beginning of what they hoped can be a dominant marketing campaign.
Final season, they started their WSL marketing campaign with two attracts and a house loss to Chelsea of their first 4 video games. These outcomes, plus the 5-2 thumping by Bayern Munich within the Champion League, led to Jonas Eidevall’s departure as supervisor in mid-October. Arsenal promoted from inside, appointing Slegers full-time after a spell as interim, but among the points that existed a yr in the past and contributed to Eidevall’s axing have resurfaced once more.
Having realized from her predecessor and adopted a lot of his techniques, it shouldn’t be too stunning that Slegers is working in an identical method. Related errors have endured underneath her management and had been all on show in opposition to an organised and aggressive Metropolis: an absence of intent and precision within the last third, haphazard defending, leaving opposition gamers free to roam and full backs leaving an excessive amount of house behind.
It’s going to take some spectacular work to catch up and keep away from dropping any extra factors — they’re but to face Chelsea — and their destiny will probably relaxation their rivals dropping factors elsewhere. That’s the final place they’d need to be this early within the season.
Slegers can have purchased herself lots of credit score following Arsenal’s European triumph, however lower than 5 months after that conquer Barcelona in Lisbon they’re already dealing with the prospect of one other home marketing campaign with out a title.
