Arsenal Women returned to the top of the FAWSL this weekend with a 5-1 victory over Liverpool Women. The win takes them a point above Manchester City Women with a game in hand.
As has been the case often for Arsenal Women this season, the supporting cast of Vivianne Miedema played a huge part in the victory. Miedema grabbed her 20th goal of the season as Kim Little, Beth Mead (two) and Dominique Bloodworth added the others.
This tactical analysis will look at how Arsenal Women were able to control proceedings against Liverpool Women and the trends that have made them such strong contenders for the FAWSL title.
Making inroads
As said earlier, despite Miedema leading the league’s scoring charts with 20 goals, Arsenal are much more than just her. Mostly using a 4-3-3 formation, they are able to design patterns of play to overwhelm defences. This was seen yet again on Sunday.
Liverpool started well and were able to restrict Arsenal’s flow but a familiar pattern involving Kim Little set Arsenal free. This came when she made inroads behind the Liverpool defence. Here’s how it worked.
This pattern was performed again just before the 20 minute-mark and led to the opener.
https://twitter.com/FAWSL/status/1109801890827718656
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