Arsenal Women

Arsenal v Birmingham City: The Brief

With the WSL season now coming into line with the men’s, our women’s team kick off their campaign on Sunday afternoon at the newly-refurbished Meadow Park against Birmingham City.

Pedro Martinez Losa has labelled his squad as “the best” that he’s had since joining the club in 2014 and has high hopes for the upcoming season, hoping to begin it with a bang against the Blues.

The opposition

Birmingham will be hoping to start well and improve on their fourth-place finish in the WSL Spring Series and sixth-place finish in the last WSL season.

The Blues ended the campaign with just one win in their final nine games, with our 4-2 victory at Meadow Park sandwiched in the middle of their run-in.

Returning with Birmingham will also be three former Gunners - Hayley Ladd, Meaghan Sargeant and Freda Ayisi.

One to watch

Twice a Bundesliga champion, Vivianne Miedema joined us this summer with a reputation as one of the most exciting talents in the women’s game. Miedema has won the Under-19 European Championship - where she finished as top scorer and player of the tournament - and led the Netherlands’ senior team to European Championship glory this summer.

At 18, Miedema scored 39 times for Heerenveen, making her the BeNe league’s top goalscorer in the 2013/14 season and in 2017 the striker finished as the Champions League’s top scorer.

“We also have competitive players like Vivianne,” Losa told Arsenal Player of the new signing. “She is one of the top young players in Europe, and we’re expecting her to perform very well.

“We needed to sign players to make the team more competitive, more solid. From an offensive point of view, we thought that we could add some top quality with Vivianne.”

Last time we met

We beat Birmingham 4-2 at The Hive in May, with Heather O’Reilly and Danielle van de Donk scoring either side of half-time, while Louise Quinn netted a late brace.

The Blues took the lead in just the first minute through Rachel Williams, before O’Reilly levelled moments before the break with a low shot into the bottom corner.

Shortly following the interval, Van de Donk rounded Sophie Baggaley and fired us into the lead, before Williams drew Birmingham level with a header just minutes later.

The two sides remained level until Quinn scored two late headers to seal all three points for Losa’s side.

Follow the action

We’ll be providing live updates on the action from Meadow Park on our Twitter account - @ArsenalWFC

Kick-off is at 2pm (UK time)

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