Meaner and Lina

When it comes to Arsenal’s attacking (under)performance over the last two years or so, the absence of Lina Hurtig since her signing in the summer of 2022 has been an under discussed factor. For a start, Hurtig’s enforced absences have led to an over reliance on Caitlin Foord and pushing her to an unreasonable physical threshold.

But, put more starkly, Arsenal have been minus an experienced attacker for over two years. Chelsea squeezed 11 goals from Aggie Beever Jones last season, Mayra Ramirez (signed in January) and Fran Kirby (who she effectively replaced) got three each. In 2022-23, Chelsea got five each from Jelena Cankovic and Lauren James.

City got five from Chloe Kelly and four from Mary Fowler last season. These sorts of supplementary goals from support forwards are very valuable for teams with title winning aspirations. Clearly you need your bona fide first choices in form and firing, but the best WSL teams ‘squeeze the lemon’ by getting around 5-6 goals a season from their support forwards.

The absence of Hurtig has denied Arsenal a potential avenue for goals but her return gives cause for cautious optimism. I am surprised at how quickly many people dismissed the quality of the player on such scant evidence. I think it is perfectly fair to point to her absence(s) as costly, regardless of whether she bears any responsibility for that.

But many seemed to dismiss the quality of the player even when available, which I always found a little strange. She had played 328 WSL minutes across two seasons prior to this campaign. It isn’t really a sufficient sample size to make a determination in either direction. That she is a long-term Swedish international certainly suggests the quality is there and it was always going to be more of a question as to whether her skill set really suits Arsenal.

However, she clearly has interesting qualities not glimpsed elsewhere in the squad. Renee Slegers talked a little about this in her post-Brighton press conference. ‘What she brought to the game today you can see she is a physical player, we got her to pressure Brighton when they were jumping a bit more and that is when we want to bypass the midfield and protect the ball in higher positions and that is where Lina comes in.

‘She is really good and a good combination and one v one player, for setpieces both defensively and attacking she is a very dangerous.’ Her aerial prowess on the back post is a big weapon for the team and she demonstrated how difficult she is to handle in the air with her header against Brighton. Her aerial duels won percentage across the last four seasons is 57.1%. Bunny Shaw’s across the same timeframe is 56.9%.

As I wrote last week, Arsenal’s lack of setpiece threat can be directly correlated to their lack of aerially dominant players. Jen Beattie, Rafaelle and Amanda Ilestedt have come out of the team one by one and Arsenal lack the sort of players that you would identify as dangerous when a setpiece is delivered into the area. Hurtig is absolutely your lighthouse in that situation, as she showed on Friday.

Hurtig is a wide attacker that has a lot of striker style qualities with her ability to hold the ball add an extra physical dimension to their attack. I think the revelation that her absence for the majority of last season owed to personal issues rather than physical issues has brought her not only patience from the fan base, but an outpouring of love and support.

On her return to action against Valarenga, her emergence onto the pitch was marked with a standing ovation and Hurtig, an incredibly shy and reluctant public figure, soaked up the adulation with her daughter in front of the fans at full-time. Her appearance and goal against Brighton were both marked by sizeable cheers. There is something cult hero potential here if she can continue to contribute, even if in a cameo type role.

The past is unalterable but the future is always up for grabs. Arsenal have missed another source of goals, another source of threat from the bench and height on setpieces for a long time. Lina Hurtig doesn’t have to win WSL Player of the Year or the Golden Boot to provide Arsenal with something valuable this season that they have badly missed.