How Arsenal's defensive weaknesses were exposed in chaotic West Ham win

Max Radwan breaks down an uncharacteristically poor defensive poor performance from Renee Slegers' team

Arsenal’s Lia Walti up against Shekiera Martinez. Credit: Arsenal Women

The opening ten seconds of Arsenal's WSL clash with West Ham offered the first sign that we were in for a frantic evening at Meadow Park.

A speculative forward pass from Leah Williamson was cut out by Verena Hanshaw, only for the West Ham defender to under hit a back pass straight into the path of Alessia Russo, whose goal-bound shot was blocked by Amber Tyziak.

That would be the first action of a particularly busy night for the Belgian defender, but not exactly in the way she might have anticipated. With Arsenal threatening after mere seconds, surely it wouldn't be long until the third-leakiest defence in the league was breached?

Sure enough, the ball was in the net twice before the sun had set on a glorious early-spring afternoon in Borehamwood. Instead of racing into a 2-0 lead, Arsenal found themselves two goals down, with Tysiak's brace reducing the majority of those inside Meadow Park to rare state of stunned silence.

This was an uncharacteristically poor defence performance from Slegers' Arsenal. It is the first time they have conceded three non-penalty goals in a game under her and indeed the first time they have conceded a goal to a team outside of the WSL's 'big four' since April. While you have to go back to September 2018 (incidentally, also a 4–3 win at home to West Ham) for the last time they have conceded three goals to one of these teams.