Arsenal Women returned to winning ways with a 4-2 win over West Ham Women. In their first FAWSL game in a month, the win was imperative to stay top of the league.
Despite losing to Manchester City Women in the last round, City did Arsenal a favour this weekend. A draw at Bristol City Women means Arsenal stay top of the league with two points and a game in hand over Man City.
However, this game wasn’t the smoothest for Joe Montemurro’s side. West Ham opened the scoring and went into half-time 2-2. Thankfully for Arsenal, in form Danielle van de Donk scored a brace to secure the win.
But how did West Ham trouble Arsenal? How did Arsenal overcome those troubles? I’ll go through that in this tactical analysis.
Arsenal Women’s defence
Arsenal went into this game with a somewhat unfamiliar defence. Although Lisa Evans and Leah Williamson have been regulars in defence, that wasn’t the case for the rest of the backline.
Janni Arnth came in for her debut with Katie McCabe to the left of her. This saw the left side of Arsenal’s defence targeted by West Ham. However, with Arsenal dominating 60% of possession, West Ham had to pick their moments.
With this in mind though, when they went forward West Ham were effective. This was showcased as both West Ham goals originated from Arsenal’s left-hand side. A big reason why they were successful in this was their directness, which caught Arsenal out.
Even though the initial goal kick should have been dealt with, this showed some problems Arsenal are having. With injuries hitting hard this season, players haven’t always been able to play in their natural positions. This, along with new defensive partners, means they may take a bit longer to get used to each other’s play as well as what is demanded of them.
This was seen again when Arsenal were similarly caught out for Ross’ second goal.
