Preview: Arsenal Women v Manchester United

We host Manchester United at Emirates Stadium for our final game of the Barclays Women’s Super League season on Saturday (12.30pm).

Don’t miss out on the chance to cheer on the team for one last time at home in 2024/25!

We’re looking to get back to winning ways following away defeats to Aston Villa and Brighton, and your support can give the players the perfect send off ahead of the UEFA Women’s Champions League final in Lisbon.

PLACES ON THE PODIUM

With a top three finish already secured for ourselves and Manchester United, Saturday’s clash will determine who will finish second in the WSL, with the visitors currently one point behind us.

Marc Skinner’s side aren’t on the best run of form, having picked up just two points from the last nine available courtesy of draws against Manchester City and West Ham United, either side of a 1-0 loss to Chelsea, but they have secured Champions League football for next season.

They also have the Women’s FA Cup final to look forward to against the Blues on Sunday, May 18, having beaten their local rivals in the semi-finals.

United were top of the WSL after October’s 1-1 draw away to Brighton, but fell down to fifth following further draws against us and Aston Villa.

A run of seven league wins in a row between December and March saw them climb up to second, before our own unbeaten run had us go closest to Chelsea as United slipped up with a 3-1 loss at Liverpool.

WHAT THE MANAGERS SAY

Slegers: “It's very important. We're going to go to secure the second place in the table. There's so much motivation for us tomorrow coming from different directions and we're going to put everything into the game.

“We're going to have so many fans backing us, so we want to deliver our best possible product and we want to show ourselves at our best coming off the back of the last two games."

Skinner: “It’s an important game that can determine who finishes second, so it’s a big game. Arsenal have lost the last two but they aren’t going to want to lose at the Emirates to Manchester United.

“We deserve to really enjoy these two moments we’ve got - the Emirates game and the Wembley game. I want the players to go and get the win, but I want them to enjoy it and I want to see that in the body language.”

TEAM NEWS

In her pre-match press conference, Renee Slegers confirmed that Daphne van Domselaar, Lina Hurtig and Katie Reid are not fit for this match.

United are making a late call on the availability of Jade Riviere, but otherwise there are no fresh team news concerns for them.

FACTS AND STATS

Including the Spring Series, we have won our final WSL game of the season 11 times out of 14 campaigns (D2 L1), beating Brighton 5-0 last season at Meadow Park.

Manchester United have lost their final game of the season in two of the last three WSL campaigns, losing 4-2 to Chelsea in 2021/22 and 6-0 in 2023/24, their biggest ever WSL defeat.

Manchester United are winless in their last three WSL games (D2 L1), last going longer without victory in the league back in November 2021, a run of four (D3 L1) when the fourth game was a 2-0 loss to us.

Caitlin Foord has been involved in six goals in her last four WSL starts for us (4 goals, 2 assists), with her goal against Brighton last time out her 50th goal involvement in the competition (30 goals, 20 assists).

Katie McCabe has created more chances than any other player in the WSL this season (48), while she’s also the only player to have created 20+ chances from both open play (27) and set play (21) this term.

MATCH OFFICIALS

Melissa Burgin has been appointed to take charge of Saturday’s fixture, having recently seen over our 5-1 win at home to Leicester City in April, during which only two yellow cards were shown.

Referee: Melissa Burgin
Assistants: Matthew Joyce and Leoni Harland
Fourth official: Grace Lowe

PREVIOUSLY AT HOME TO UNITED

We got the job done in the first half on Manchester United’s most recent trip to Emirates Stadium, scoring all of our goals before 44 minutes of a 3-1 win in February, 2024.

After forcing a 10th-minute Geyse own goal, Cloe Lacasse made it 2-0 and Kim Little sent us into the interval full of confidence with a third from the penalty spot in the brink of half-time.

Lucia Garcia pulled back a consolation in the sixth minute of added time at the end of the second half, but with 16 shots to United’s nine, we fully deserved all three points.

LIVE COVERAGE

In the UK, the game will be available to watch live on BBC Two and the BBC iPlayer. For the rest of the world, see which broadcasters are showing the game in the article below.