It was meant to be all about the return of Alessia Russo to her former club Manchester United, instead it was Arsenal’s lesser-known Cloé Lacasse that would steal the show, lashing into the top corner deep into added time to rescue a point for Jonas Eidevall’s battling Gunners.
“For her to come on and show that confidence speaks volumes of the team and the environment we provide for each other,” said Eidevall of Lacasse. “It’s so easy when you’re new to pass the ball to someone else. I love that self-confidence and that she got rewarded for it.”
United’s Melvine Malard and Hinata Miyazawa, two of the players signed to help replace Russo, had combined to give United a precious 2-1 lead and heap further pain on an already suffering Arsenal late on, but Lacasse struck at the death to stun the home crowd.
“It would have been extremely harsh to leave with nothing,” said Eidevall. “Am I satisfied with a point? I wouldn’t say that, I think we could have won the game.”
Last year, Russo was the hero of this fixture, scoring the winner in both United’s 1-0 home defeat of an injury-hit Arsenal and their 3-2 win at the Emirates. Here, Russo’s every touch was met with loud boos, “Russo is a snake” and “who are you?” chants. She had chances, forcing two fine saves from Mary Earps and hitting the crossbar and would be instrumental in the opener of the cagey affair – shrugging off the pressure of the occasion to feed left wing-back Steph Catley, who released Stina Blackstenius – she beat Hannah Blundell before slotting coolly past Earps, a summer target of Arsenal.
It had been expected that Eidevall would make changes to the side that suffered a shock 1-0 defeat by a well-organised Liverpool to open their WSL campaign last weekend. However, the number was a surprise. Goalkeeper Manuela Zinsberger, who struggled against Liverpool and did not look her best on international duty with Austria, made way for Sabrina D’Angelo and was joined on the bench by five other starters from last Sunday in Lotte Wubben-Moy, Katie McCabe, Frida Maanum, Lacasse and Caitlin Foord. Eidevall has struggled to find the balance between making sure his squad is well rested, as they are a team laden with players that competed at the World Cup, and keeping it competitive. Their defeat to Liverpool came off the back of crashing out of Champions League qualifying to Paris FC on penalties 17 days after the World Cup final.
It was perhaps inevitable that Arsenal conceding came entirely of their own making, their woes piling high, and that it would be their lack of goalkeeping quality they had tried to recruit Earps to improve that would cost them. D’Angelo came out to meet left-back Gabby George’s ball from deep but missed her attempted clearance, instead crumbling to the ground and allowing Leah Galton to collect and roll into the empty net. It was a humbling moment for the Canada goalkeeper, as TV cameras panned to a stoney-faced Zinsberger sat in the dugout, who left the pitch deep in discussion with her replacement at the break.
United emerged the sharper side but a triple change before the hour mark would inject some energy into the visiting team, with Foord among those coming on. Within minutes fellow arrivals McCabe and Foord were in the book and after Eidevall expressed his distaste at the decisions he received a yellow card too.
Arsenal went close to taking the lead moments later, Lia Wälti’s ball across the face of goal narrowly missed Noelle Maritz. Then Russo twice tested Earps, first with a header that was palmed away by the keeper, before racing clear of Blundell and sending an effort towards the far post that was diverted by Earps’s outstretched foot.
With Arsenal having the edge in terms of chances, Marc Skinner shuffled his pack, with Rachel Williams, the scorer of United’s late winner against Aston Villa, coming on and Miyazawa and Malard following shortly after.
Russo would go close again, wriggling into space before lashing an effort off a post.
It looked like they would be punished for their profligacy, as Malard raced on to Miyazawa’s header after the Gunners failed to clear and poked in past D’Angelo.
Arsenal’s equaliser, though, was stunning, Lacasse hitting her effort into the top corner from 25 yards to lift the pressure a little.
“We’ve come a long way if Arsenal are celebrating like that at the end,” said Skinner. “It means a lot to get a point at Manchester United now.”
Eidevall agreed: “The performance was big from us today, not many teams come here and are the better team.”
