What next for Arsenal Women’s season?

I think very few Arsenal fans or commentators were under the illusion that Sunday’s Conti Cup Final was anything other than a must win. At the very least, Arsenal needed to compete strongly in the final. Arsenal and Chelsea have a strange habit of bringing out the worst in one another, as illustrated by the league encounters between the two.

Both teams put in their worst performances of the season against one another. The Conti Cup Final looked a lot more like the sort of game one would expect from an Arsenal v Chelsea encounter and more akin to the 0-0 draw the teams roughed out at Kingsmeadow in February 2022 when they were fighting one another for the title.

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Extra time was clearly a bridge too far for a tiring Chelsea team and Arsenal made a point of really going for it in the second half of extra time, sensing their physical advantage. The silverware in the cabinet brings a sheen to a campaign that really needed a sparkle.

I don’t think we learned anything we didn’t know about Arsenal in this game, as Jonas Eidevall himself admitted in his post-match press conference. ‘We have a thing to solve, for next season it is our consistency. Our level to compete with top teams has been very good this season and I think we have the potential to beat any team…we need to fix the consistency, that is really important if we want to win in more than one competition.’

All of which begs the question- what now for Arsenal? They sit on an island in third place in the WSL, they are nine points behind Manchester City at the top with a game in hand and are six points above fourth place Manchester United with a game in hand. That game in hand is at home to bottom club Bristol City so if they win that, they are six points from the top and nine points clear of fourth with five games remaining.

It would be extraordinary for them to finish anywhere other than 3rd and they don’t have a single midweek game to contend with until the season’s end. Though Eidevall and his team could never admit this publicly, they essentially have a five game mini pre-season here (six games if you count their post-season friendly in Melbourne on May 24th).

Their next three games are at home to Bristol City and Leicester before travelling to Everton. Then they travel to City in early May. They really ought to put nine points on the board before travelling to Manchester and fans will not just want to see victories but victories that are achieved with poise and convincing performances.

It is important for the belief of the fans and the squad to finish the season strongly. At the same time, Arsenal can afford to think of next season a little. For the Conti Cup Final, I think everyone understands why Kim Little and Victoria Pelova were teamed up at the base of the midfield. But giving significant minutes to Kyra Cooney-Cross to aid her progression from here on will be crucial.

Cooney-Cross arrived on summer deadline day and had no pre-season with the club. Arsenal are trying to develop her off the ball game on the training ground and now they have the opportunity to develop that in competitive games but games against opponents in the bottom half of the table where the results, frankly, are not quite in the ‘live or die’ category. The men’s team, for example, are not in a position to give Fabio Vieira acclimatisation time in the situation they are currently embroiled in.

But of course, I have contradicted myself a little here by saying Arsenal need to finish the season strongly but can also afford to take some small technical risks ahead of next season. That is the balance Eidevall and his staff have to find, a strong finish allied with a look ahead. For instance, they could really work on making Russo into the 20-goal a season striker they think she can be but they also want Stina Blackstenius to sign a new contract and she is the in-form player.

How does Eidevall balance those objectives? Does he prioritise mixing and matching so there is greater cohesion ahead of next season or does that approach simply confuse things further and detract from the overall synergy of the group? Does Eidevall look to build relationships and lean into them for the remainder of the campaign?

In my view, the second half against Aston Villa last weekend felt more like a ‘lightbulb’ moment than the Conti Cup Final. We have seen Arsenal compete with City and Chelsea this year but I don’t think we have seen them stress a low block in the consummate manner they did in the second half at Villa Park.

I put this to Jonas in his pre Conti Cup Final press conference last Friday and he said, ‘Our second half against Villa is probably our best 45 minutes against a low block, but I think you can see trends in there, the home game against Everton and the home game against Tottenham…There are trends now but not as consistently dominant as we were in that 45 minutes against Villa. That is very pleasing…It was a really good step in the right direction against low blocks.’

Honestly, I felt it was too. Beth Mead’s goal against Everton is a replica of Wubben-Moy’s against Villa and Arsenal used the same left to right diagonal from Kim Little to create Russo’s winner v Spurs. But I still felt Arsenal were unconvincing overall against Spurs and Everton. At Villa, I felt they really strangled the opposition and should have scored more than their three goals (their XG was 4.0 on the night. 3.2 of that was created in the second half).

Of course, there is an argument that says what Arsenal do in the next five games, whatever their approach, could be pretty inconsequential. The summer WSL break is long, after the final game against Brighton on May 18th, it will be close to four months before they play together competitively again. There is certainly no opportunity to create momentum going into 2024-25.

But most of all, I think the supporters need to feel some sense of hope and putting the Conti Cup trophy on the sideboard can aid that. I also think Emma Hayes could have provided a useful enemy for Eidevall. Her comments in the wake of Sunday’s final have caused supporters to rally behind the manager in service of a common enemy. He can use that to re-connect with a fan base whose faith in him has wavered during this season.

Injuries to Lia Walti and Vivianne Miedema can help him to become firmer in certain positions and perhaps future proof a little. Assuming she is ok to play again this season, let’s get Frida Maanum another run in the number 10 position and start to see some of the form that won her the club Player of the Season last year.

Vivianne Miedema’s contract expires this summer and, currently, I have no idea whether she will sign a new one. That is a situation that will have to resolve in the coming weeks. Eidevall can use the coming weeks to inform decisions for next season- Kathrine Kuhl is a player the club really believes in but at least one of the current central midfielders is going to have to make way for her to get regular game time next season. Choices are going to have to be made.

So what do we want to see in the remaining games of the season? Well that’s easy, we want rotation and the continued induction of new players, but we want firm partnerships and principles. We want to take some risks with a view to next season but we want to win every game and comfortably. We want hope for the next campaign and to put a more satisfying coda onto this one. Easy.

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