Ben Haines, club TV presenter and women’s football presenter, will sit down with us ahead of every WSL home game this season to provide his insight on the upcoming fixture and the news around the league.
An action-packed London derby
It was a lively London derby last weekend against London City Lionesses, who I feel we’re still learning about and trying to understand where they’re currently at as they’ve obviously assembled an impressive squad in the summer. In terms of the way we approached the game, once we reached 2-2, it felt like we would be side that would go on to win the game. It got quite chaotic, pretty much end-to-end, but we ultimately came unstuck from two set pieces and that was enough to ensure London City Lionesses got over the line. The fourth goal came from us chasing the game and going in search of an equaliser, but Martin Ho would have taken a lot of positives away from that game to go reinforce on the training ground this week and a few things that he would want to work on as well.
Influential Holdt
Olivia Holdt was once again finding those pockets of space that we’re so used to seeing her find now. She invites challenges in and then can glide past them, and she isn’t just about creating outright assists, but it’s about creating space for other players to exploit. So, if she can invite a challenge against teams playing a low block, she can suddenly ghost past player and create a two-on-one situation, but it also creates a huge amount space for our other attackers. She could play a big part in this afternoon’s fixture against Arsenal.
Elsewhere in the WSL
Looking at the results from last weekend, the one standout was the impressive Aston Villa win over Manchester United. People seem to have forgotten about their strong finish to last season, picking up 15 points from a possible 15, and they’ve gently eased into a fairly good position in the opening stages of this term. At the start of the last campaign, there was discussion whether Aston Villa would be part of a relegation battle, but none of those issues seem to have surfaced this time around.
An entertaining north London derby on the cards
Now, we come into what I think is the most exciting north London derby in years. There’s no denying it; Arsenal have always been one of the powerhouses in Women’s football. They’ve certainly built a good infrastructure around the team but there’s also no getting away from the fact that Spurs have started to close that gap this season. Spurs are now in and around the sides at the top of the table, which is really good going at this stage of a season and, in no small part, down to the fantastic work that Martin has done.
A reflection on Arsenal’s opening months
Arsenal have had a tough start to the season, including the defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League earlier this week. There’s no doubt that they felt they should have taken all three points from that game against Chelsea. They rode the atmosphere and certainly turned up on the day. Arsenal are a very good side who have an abundance of talent throughout the group. It will take us being at our very best to get past them but I don’t see why we can’t do that in what will be a brilliant north London derby.