The race for Champions League football continues on Friday night as we prepare to host Leicester City at Meadow Park.
Jonas Eidevall's side head into tonight's clash with mixed emotions from recent fixtures. After suffering a number of long-term injuries to key players, the team have dug deep to deliver three valiant performances against Manchester United and VfL Wolfsburg over two legs in the in the Champions League semi-finals.
But despite our best efforts and showing plenty of character, we're now without a win in three and have only five league fixtures remaining.
Last time out
The last time we faced Leicester City was back in November at the King Power Stadium.
We ran out 4-0 winners on the day extending our record successive wins in the Women's Super League to 14.
First-half strikes from Frida Maanum, Caitlin Foord and a Steph Catley effort straight from a corner ensured the perfect start, before Stina Blackstenius made it four in the second half.
What the managers say
Jonas Eidevall: “We’ve tried our very best this week to say what emotions and feelings we want to carry forward. What can help us to become a stronger team in the future and what we need to get rid of now to be ready for the challenge against Leicester.
“That’s sport and football. You have to look forward. You’re not entitled to anything just because you did something yesterday. What’s important is today and, for us, tomorrow against Leicester. That’s where we need to put 100 per cent of our energy and focus.
“I don’t spend much time [assessing the title race], because I don’t know how that contributes to anything better for us. We have five games left in the league, we need to stay focused on one game at a time. We need to play each of these games at 100 per cent and that’s what we’re focusing on. After we have done that, then we have done everything we can and that’s all we can ask of ourselves.” - hear more from Jonas here on ACL injuries and what needs to change
Willie Kirk: "We want to be aggressive on Friday night and play attack-minded football. I don’t think we’ll dominate the ball against Arsenal so it will be a different game to the previous couple, but we’ll still have periods within the match where we want to be positive with the ball.
"The only way for us to play now is confident. If we started playing in a low block, and just defending behind the ball then it won’t be a true reflection of us, or what we want our identity to be.
"I said to the players that one of my main concerns was focusing on the badge that we were playing against. We’ve framed games wrong in the past and I’ve described games against the top teams as a free hit and that there’s no pressure on us, but I believe that is wrong looking back now."
Team news
Beth Mead, Vivianne Miedema, Leah Williamson and Kim Little remain out due to long-term injuries.
We also announced on Thursday morning that Laura Wienroither sadly ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament against Wolfsburg on Monday night.
Speaking in Thursday's press conference, Eidevall confirmed that Caitlin Foord is unavailable for selection, while Stina Blackstenius is fit and ready to go after being substituted on Monday night as a precaution.
Gio and Jodie Taylor are set to return to our matchday squad after not being registered for the UWCL squad
How to watch
The game will be played at Meadow Park on Friday night with kick-off at 7.30pm.
You can watch the game live on Sky Sports Football in the UK.
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