Arsenal Women kept their 100% start to this FAWSL season going with a 4-1 win over Brighton & Hove Albion Women.
Arsenal Women went behind early on but goals from Vivianne Miedema, Dominique Bloodworth, Danielle van de Donk and Beth Mead ensured the gap between them and Manchester City Women stayed at six points.
Although Arsenal have won all their league games, there is one growing concern. Injuries. That heightened last week as Jordan Nobbs picked up an ACL injury. So in this tactical analysis, I’ll look at how Arsenal fared without her and how they combated Brighton.
Brighton’s Game
Despite being underdogs, Brighton were the ones to open the scoring. This was through Ini-Abasi Umotong who was the beneficiary of a ball in behind the defence as we can see below:
? Just look what that means to @iumotong! @OfficialBHAFC take the lead at Boreham Wood against @ArsenalWFC in the first 10 minutes pic.twitter.com/2LYpufn6sh
— The FA Women's Super League (@FAWSL) November 25, 2018
Although Arsenal’s pressing game this season has been impressive, it has been played through at times. This was the case again in the build-up to Umotong’s goal.
As the game grew, however, Brighton struggled to get similar service into Umotong. This made it difficult for them to build sustainable attacks against an in-form Arsenal. At some points, this could’ve been solved with better decision making.
This was a trend in the game that in-turn gifted Arsenal the ball many times. This was reflected as Joe Montemurro’s side ended up with 65% of possession.
Dominique Bloodworth Back In Midfield
As aforementioned, the loss of Nobbs was a big talking point. Replacing her in the midfield three was Dominique Bloodworth. She’s no stranger to the midfield having played there for most of last season. However, this season she has been used mostly in defence, whether that’s at right or centre back.
As usual, Bloodworth kept hold of the ball and moved it on well. The encouraging signs though were that, like Nobbs who she was replacing, she was happy to get forward off the ball. As highlighted against Everton, runners from midfield have made a huge difference for Arsenal. Here’s how Bloodworth did in that aspect of the game:
Bloodworth’s off the ball movement was effective on the day though. We can see from the goal that she scored to put Arsenal ahead:
? @DominiqueJansse with a left-footed first time finish
? @ArsenalWFC now lead @OfficialBHAFC 2-1 after 32 minutes pic.twitter.com/x6eY2L0z3K
— The FA Women's Super League (@FAWSL) November 25, 2018
So, back in midfield, Dominique Bloodworth had a very sound display. What she brought in defence was also valuable and will probably be shown more next week against City.
Defending On The Front Foot
Once Arsenal had taken the lead, one thing they did well was close off the game. Defending at a high intensity, all over the pitch, this saw Brighton struggle to get themselves back into the match.
Here’s how they that worked in comparison to the first-half.
What ensured this worked was that this style was executed in all thirds of the pitch. In the second-half, Arsenal press improved and the midfield were more in sync. Lia Walti, who has had an impressive start to her Arsenal career continued that at the base of midfield and in this particular aspect of the game.
This phase of play was incredibly important as it caught Brighton out at the worst time. In the middle of an attack, they had players streaming forward and here’s how van de Donk and Mead exploited the space left behind:
? Beautiful finish from @bmeado9 with less than 10 minutes to go at Boreham Wood…
? @ArsenalWFC 4-1 ? @OfficialBHAFC pic.twitter.com/CHZiJmDDR4
— The FA Women's Super League (@FAWSL) November 25, 2018
Summary
Against Brighton, Arsenal may have had a rocky start but they regained control of the game well. What was clear is that the rhythm and momentum they find themselves will be massively important next weekend.
Having beaten Yeovil Town Ladies 4-0, Manchester City will be confident that they will hand Arsenal their first loss of the season. However, we’ve seen throughout this season that Arsenal as well as blowing teams away, can grind out results and score numerous goals on any given day.
But that shouldn’t mean Arsenal fans go into next week expecting a win. It’ll be the biggest test of the season so far but one that should be a great watch.
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