Arsenal overcome absentees to beat London City and close gap

Without Catley, Cooney-Cross and Foord, Arsenal still found enough to win 2-0 through Smith and Blackstenius and make it three league wins in a row

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Arsenal moved to within two points of second place in the WSL with a 2-0 win away at London City Lionesses on Sunday afternoon. The Gunners, in league action for the first time in five weeks, produced a gritty performance to make it three consecutive league wins for the first time this season, thanks to goals from Olivia Smith and Stina Blackstenius.

One of the headaches for Renée Slegers ahead of this game was how she would deal with the absences of her Australian trio of Kyra Cooney-Cross, Caitlin Foord and Steph Catley, with all three players representing the host nation for this year’s Asian Cup. The last of those players has been ever-present in the centre of the Arsenal defence this season. In Catley’s absence, Slegers paired Leah Williamson and Lotte Wubben-Moy together for the first time in a WSL match since February 2025. Up against a London City side with dangerous attacking players at their disposal, chief among them Freya Godfrey, who joined from the Gunners in the summer and has been in electric recent form that has earned her first senior England call-ups either side of the turn of the year.

In the early part of the match, London City threatened Arsenal in the wide areas, with Godfrey and Lucía Corrales enjoying themselves down the flanks and finding space; however, the Gunners tightened up as the first half went on, conceding just 0.25 xG in the opening 45 minutes. After the match, Slegers praised her team’s grit in difficult, windy conditions: “It wasn’t the flowing passing Arsenal way with high technical quality today. But we had to find ways to win.”

When asked by The Cutback about the partnership between Leah Williamson and Lotte Wubben-Moy, Slegers referenced the fact that the two players had recently partnered each other for England during the international break: “They played together for England for 45 minutes, so I was happy to see that so that they could connect.” Going on to talk about how the two players complemented each other, Slegers referenced the time both players have spent together at the club: “They’ve been in the same squad for so long; they’re both Arsenal through and through.”

The other headline piece of team selection in this match came in goal, where Anneke Borbe was picked ahead of Daphne van Domselaar. While Slegers didn’t specifically mention an injury to the latter, the Dutch stopper was on the bench for both of her country’s World Cup qualifiers over the international break. This meant that Borbe deputised again, with the German keeping her ninth clean sheet in 13 appearances since coming into the team in December. Borbe wasn’t particularly busy for most of the afternoon, thanks to the solid performances of those in front of her, but did produce a sharp stop in the closing stages of the match to deny Kosavare Asllani from a free-kick. Besides this, she was assured on the ball despite London City’s best attempts to press high in tricky conditions.

On the flanks, Slegers opted to start Chloe Kelly and Olivia Smith. With Caitlin Foord on Asia Cup duty and Beth Mead only just returning from a shin injury, Slegers’ hand was somewhat forced, but the selection of Kelly and Smith (the order of the names on the team sheet evoking memories of one of Arsenal’s greatest ever players) paid dividends for the Gunners.

Initially, Kelly started on the right flank, with Smith on the left, but the players regularly interchanged in the opening few minutes of the match, causing London City all kinds of problems. When Smith opened the scoring, she did so coming off the left, assisted by Chloe Kelly. A few minutes later, it was Kelly causing problems from the right. With both players possessing diverse skillsets, having two wingers who could interchange ensured an element of unpredictability to Arsenal’s attacking play. After the game, Slegers talked about the qualities the two players exemplified in their respective performances: “We can look at who has moments and what sort of quality we need on what side, where the game is at, then we can make decisions, or they have the ownership to make those in-game decisions as well.”

All in all, this match represented a professional afternoon’s work that ensured Arsenal picked up where they left off prior to the international break. These games immediately after a long break can often prove tricky, as WSL rivals Manchester City found out in their goalless draw with Aston Villa. That result could potentially allow Arsenal to close the gap at the top of the table to five points, should their two games in hand on City be converted into wins, but putting lofty ambitions of a late title charge to one side, this win does ensure that Arsenal are, on paper at least, well placed to be the best of the rest in the WSL this season. Slegers’ side now trail third-placed Chelsea by just a point, and are a further point behind second-placed Manchester United, with a game in hand over both. Arsenal will now enjoy a midweek off ahead of West Ham’s visit to the Emirates this Saturday, in a match where the Gunners will hope to maintain the momentum they have built up since December, as we head towards the business end of the season.