Foord gives Eidevall fresh options up top
Going into Saturday's game the selection was always going to be fascinating. Jonas Eidevall had found himself forced to juggle between the importance of a historic North London Derby that could help his side extend an early lead in the WSL title race and Wednesday's crucial second leg of Arsenal's finely Champions League qualification playoff with Ajax. As team sheets were revealed an hour before kick off, they did not disappoint.
While Stina Blackstenius had started the season with two goals in two matches, the Swede found herself dropped to the bench, but rather than having Vivianne Miedema push up from the ten position into the nine, it was Caitlin Foord who was selected to play the centre forward role. The Australian was billed as a forward upon her arrival in 2020, but has spent much of her time in north London playing out on the left wing. Some began to pose questions as to how she might handle the role but in reality there needn't have been any worry.
In a slightly freer interpretation of the position, Foord was given license to drift back out to the left when necessary, where she created overloads that Katie McCabe and Steph Catley were able to exploit with pinpoint delivery. What stood out most though in her performance was the intensity of her pressing on the day. The 27-year-old simply refused to allow the Spurs backline a moments peace and was rewarded for her energetic display with an assist for Miedema's first goal after nabbing the ball off Evelina Sumannen high up the pitch.
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As the first round of substitutions were made it was no surprise to see her taken off to raucous applause from the Emirates crowd such was the amount of effort that she had put into the match. Speaking after the game Eidevall revealed that it was this desire to keep every member of his squad as fresh as possible that was the deciding factor in having Foord start the game up front.
"For me it was about saying we have games with quick turnarounds so we need to use the depth of our squad," he said when asked to explain her selection. "For us, it is really important that we go 100% every time that we play, we shouldn’t have different gears in the way that we play. That means we need to be able to change players and start with fresh legs at every game."
Going forward for the season though Foord's impressive display up top presents a fascinating alternative for Eidevall as he seeks to form a squad that is capable of competing on multiple fronts. Arsenal are now even more unpredictable up top and will be a nightmare for opposition teams to defend against this season.
Defence earns credit on superb day for the attack
As much as this was a day where the attackers had their moment in the sun, after the game Jonas Eidevall was keen to shine the light on the other half of his team's display. Despite how it may have seemed on Saturday, Spurs are far from a poor side, and while Rehanne Skinner expressed frustration after the game at her team's inability to play to the best of their ability, Arsenal's suffocating display played a huge part in that. It wasn't so much through crunching tackles or last ditch blocks, but rather a superb understanding of their positioning and an ability to smother Tottenham as a unit.
Key to this were Lia Walti and Kim Little at the base of the midfield who both went about their work with a quiet diligence that was contrasted beautifully by the cacophonous Emirates Stadium crowd. Both stationed themselves on the pitch in areas of the pitch that made it impossible for Spurs to even have a sniff of gaining possession and showed quality on the ball that allowed Arsenal to maintain dominance for more or less the entirety of the game which is honestly not an overstatement.
It was almost totally at odds with Tuesday night's display against Ajax and arguably even last week's WSL opener against Brighton where the Gunners had looked as though they carried the soft underbelly of vulnerability to the counter attack amid their impressive attacking play. Speaking after the game Eidevall made sure to point out the improvement from those games as a reason for his side's display.
"Our positioning made Spurs look not so aggressive because we made the distances so, so long for them," the Swede said. "It meant they had to jump out of their formation, but when you look at the game we didn’t concede a single goal scoring chance in the whole game. It’s so impressive, Spurs are a very good team. That is very stable.
"After the Ajax game I told the players we were poor defensively in that game and you can’t expect to win a team sport when you play poor defensively. Today we were great defensively, good teams learn from their mistakes. We have eight clean sheets in a row in the WSL and that’s very impressive. We talk about the good things we do with the ball, which we should, but the players in defence work so hard. Eight clean sheets is hard work!"
That run of clean sheets is a WSL record and although it may seem perverse to talk about the defensive record on a day where Manuella Zinsberger had just one shot to deal with all game, the dominant display would not have been possible without such collective excellence.
Record crowd shows appetite for women's game is here to stay
As the full time whistle blew on England's EURO 2022 triumph at Wembley the clock began ticking on the biggest question facing women's football in this country. Will this enthusiasm be maintained?
Leah Williamson was defiant as she spoke directly to the audience of 17.5 million people up and down the country imploring them to get out and support their local team, but now that the dust had settled, would that demand prove to be anything more than just words?
Well in advance of Saturday's North London Derby we knew that the answer to that was going to be yes. Arsenal had announced on September 1st that ticket sales had already surpassed the previous record of 38,262 set when these two sides met in at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium 2019 and as the hours descended into minutes prior to kick off, the sound of the marching band, the sight of fans trickling down Holloway Road from packed tube stations and the crowds of thousands clad in red and white queueing to get in to the Emirates Stadium made it clear that this was going to be a historic day.
The tone for a joyous afternoon was set from early on when Beth Mead fired Arsenal in front and any tension that a Spurs comeback might be on the cards was extinguished as Vivianne Miedema fired home her first on the stroke of half time. This set up an enjoyable a second half that played host to Rafaelle Souza's headed strike and another for the WSL's record scorer Miedema. It was the kind of day that all in the stands will remember and few on the pitch will forget any time soon either.
"Ridiculous," said Mead when describing the atmosphere after she had been subject to her own private lap of honour when she was replaced by Lina Hurtig after being forced to walk around the pitch by a spoiled sported referee who clearly hadn't got the party atmosphere memo. "I have never experienced that before. The fans have been incredible."
What separates it apart from the momentous occasions that have preceded it though is the effort fans had made to be there. Bar a few community initiatives there were no free tickets handed out. In a time where money is tight across the country 53,757 people chose to spend their hard earned cash on a ticket to see women playing football. If ever you wanted proof that interest in women's football is there for real, this was it.
The Euros are undeniably a major factor in this, but Arsenal have played their part too. The club have put considerable resources behind promoting the match that Jonas Eidevall was keen to praise after the game.
"The club has really been investing a lot of time and energy and commitment into that," the Swede said. "That is so important because then you don’t leave things to chance. Then you are really trying to build the game, to increase the revenue then to increase the sporting success. That’s the way we want to operate."
Of course the job is not done. Across the WSL high attendances are far from the norm even when games are played in larger grounds and last week Leicester's curtain raiser against Tottenham at the 32,000 seater King Power Stadium drew a crowd of just 2,868.
But what this historic day in north London does show is that if clubs are willing to market games to supporters than the appetite is most certainly there. Arsenal have at least six more women's games at the Emirates this season and with the quality of product on display on Saturday you get the feeling this latest WSL attendance record might not stand for too long.
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