As the season races ahead, the pressure is mounting for several teams. Will Arsenal finally deliver on their potential? Can Liverpool mount a serious challenge to Manchester City? And will Aston Villa manage to secure their first three points of the campaign?

The Women’s Football Blog game of the weekend

It was make or break this WSL weekend for Arsenal, and unfortunately it was break. The Gunners conceded two goals early in the first half, and were therefore forced to run behind the facts to comeback in the game. The Women’s Football Blog’s game of the weekend, saw Chelsea scoring in the fourth minute via Ramirez. A set piece (corner), which Arsenal has been struggling with, saw Emily Fox slip and therefore Ramirez got some time to produce the overhead kick, which just feel in the back of the net. Arsenal had most of the posession in the game, but in the 16th minute once again the center backs were to narrow when James crossed the ball into the box. Beth Mead had to chose between defending Nüsken or Baltimore, and ended up in no-man’s land which gave Baltimore the chance to head in the second Chelsea goal. 

Arsenal kept pushing, and actually didn’t play that bad, and just before half time a moment of brilliance from Caitlin Foord saw the Gunners get one goal back. In the second half Arsenal kept pushing, but finished the game with 21 goal attempts but only 4 were on target. Just before the end of regulation Blackstenius hit the bar from a well worked set piece, but this was examplary of Arsenal’s season so far. It’s just won’t click. As the pressure had been mounting for weeks on Jonas Eidevall, to get the team going, once again Arsenal didn’t manage to find the space behind the opponent’s last line, and weren’t clinical with the opportunities they got. Van Domselaar kept Arsenal in the game with some fabulous saves, but it just wasn’t meant to be. At full time, the Gunners looked deflated, sad and vunerable. A couple of days after Jonas Eidevall handed in his resignation from the club, which means interim head-coach Sleegers will lead the Gunners mid-week in the Champions League. It will be a tough ask to give the players some of their confidence back, so it might not even be bad to have most of them go out on international duty next week to elevate some of the pressure of them.