WHAT HAPPENED
We made the perfect start to our Barclays FA Women’s Super League season on Sunday with a thrilling 3-2 victory over Chelsea.
Vivianne Miedema delivered a classy display with a goal and an assist, while Beth Mead scored twice in the second half to secure three valuable.
Speaking in his pre-match interview, Jonas Eidevall highlighted his desire to see intensity and aggression from the start - and his team certainly delivered.
Pressing from the front, we grabbed control of the game early on and with a stunning though ball, Katie McCabe picked out Vivianne Miedema to open the scoring. Our No 11 charged into the penalty area and evaded er marker with a smart turn, before firing home at the near post with a powerful effort.
We pushed on from there too, with Frida Maanum forcing a difficult save from Ann-Katrin Berger and Mana Iwabuchi firing over from close range. The latter should have found the back of the net having already scored three goals in three games the club - and we were duly punished on the stroke of half-time.
The visitors wrestled back some control with Ji So-Yun and Pernille Harder seeing plenty of the ball, before Erin Cuthbert found space inside our penalty area and finished into the bottom left corner.
But we regained our energy after the restart and with an inch-perfect pass from Miedema, Mead raced through on goal and scored an outrageous effort with her weaker foot, curling into the top right corner from the edge of the area.
Our No 9 had been sensational all afternoon and went on to score another, only this time she rounded Berger before dummying past the last defender and passing the ball into an empty goal. It was no less than we deserved for our hard work and resilience.
Chelsea would go on to pull one back shortly after with Pernille Harder rising high in the penalty area to head home, but with the pressure mounting in the closing stages, our defence stood strong to secure three valuable points on the opening day of the season.
WHAT IT MEANS
WHAT’S NEXT
Up next, we will face Slavia Prague in the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
The game will take place on Thursday, September 9 at the Eden Arena with kick-off at 5.30pm (UK time).
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
