Weekend Warm-Up: Arsenal relief, mid-table madness and Mouchon
Flo Lloyd-Hughes gets you ready for this weekend's WSL action and highlights some things to look out for.
Welcome back to Weekend Warm-Up, the only WSL preview piece that will include a reference to a West End musical, stay tuned.
It’s been another exciting week at The Cutback HQ. Yesterday, we hosted a live chat for the second leg of Arsenal-BK Häcken in Uefa Women’s Champions League qualifiers.
Arsenal were trailing 1-0 after the first leg but pulled off an impressive performance to win 4-1 on aggregate. There were some moments in the first half where it felt like Arsenal were going to be haunted by the ghost of missed chances once again, but then Lia Walti opened the door with that wonder strike and there was no looking back.
Arsenal join Manchester City, who beat Paris FC 8-0 on aggregate, and Chelsea in the group stage of the competition. The draw took place on Friday and here are the four groups:
Group A - Lyon, Wolfsburg, Roma, Galatasaray
Group B - Chelsea, Real Madrid, Twente, Celtic
Group C - Bayern, Arsenal, Juventus, Valerenga
Group D - Barcelona, Man City, St Polten, Hammarby
We’ll be doing more subscriber live chats throughout the season so let us know what games you’d like to tune in for. UWCL nights feel like the perfect opportunity.
If you haven’t yet subscribed but want to join the next live chat, access all of our content and also future live events then what are you waiting for? Push the button as the Sugababes would say.
All eyes on mid-table
It’s hard to draw many conclusions from the opening weekend of the WSL season, apart from signs Crystal Palace are probably going to struggle. This weekend, we might finally see some things start to shape. The match I’m most looking forward to is Aston Villa - Tottenham (Sunday 4.30pm on YouTube).
Tottenham had a huge opening day win against Palace but are about to enter a run that will really test this team. This is the first game of a run that sees Spurs play Villa, Liverpool, United and Chelsea. If they can pick up points in these next two they’ll be in great shape ahead of those tough tests against United and Chelsea.
Villa were impressive in their 1-0 defeat to Chelsea but the true test will be how they match up against a fellow mid-table team. We’ve always seen mid to low table teams step up against teams in the top four and fail to pick up points from the teams around them. This should be a really interesting match up of two teams that want to play and are up for a physical battle.
Keep a look out for Manchester City - Brighton (Sunday 12.30pm BBC). That was an anomaly game for City last season. They lost 1-0 after having 35 shots (13 on target). Brighton have a lot more firepower this season but they’re still a work in progress and won’t want to leave themselves open to City’s attack.
Keep an eye on….
The name on everybody’s lips is going to be…..Noemie Mouchon (guess the musical). Leicester City host Arsenal on Sunday at 3pm and this could be a high-scoring occasion.
This was a really fun clash last season. Live on Sky Sports, Leicester took a 2-0 lead in the first half and Arsenal ended up winning 6-2, scoring six second half goals.
Leicester City’s new signing Noemie Mouchon has been hotly tipped to do well and all the WSL hipsters are talking about her. She has reunited with Amandine Miquel, who was her manager at Stade de Reims last season.
She’s strong, physical, happy to take on defenders, can hold up the ball and is a good finisher. Leicester get most of their opportunities on the break, having to make the most of turnovers that they can then turn into a counter attack. Their equaliser against Liverpool came from a quick free kick that caught the opposition sleeping and out of position. Jutta Rantala took just one touch and finished off the move perfectly. It was one of only two shots on target Leicester had all game. Mouchon is probably going to get similar chances and she’ll need to be just as clinical.
Media rights
Yesterday on Counter Pressed, we launched our new miniseries Counter Pressed Investigates. The first show was a deep dive into media rights with Callum McCarthy from sports business intelligence platform SportBusiness. Make sure you check out especially if you’re interested in where the money comes from in women’s football.
Enjoy the football you’ll be watching this weekend. See you on Monday for the next edition of my newsletter What Happened.
Love it, thanks Flo!