What Happened: Eidevall nearing the end and Bompastor breaking a curse
Flo Lloyd-Hughes takes a look at what went down in the WSL over the weekend and highlights the latest pieces to read on The Cutback.
Welcome to another edition of The Cutback’s weekly newsletter What Happened. This newsletter will always be free to read and it will be sent out to your inbox every Monday.
Don’t forget we are hosting our first live event on 3 November in Haggerston, east London. We’re teaming up with the great crew at Baller FC for a special WSL watch party. It’s going to be a ‘Soccer Saturday’ sort of day. Our writers will be there chatting about Manchester United-Arsenal and then we will go ‘around the grounds’ to talk about the other fixtures of the day. Expect analysis, darts and lots of fun. Tickets are free so don’t miss out.
What Happened is a weekly newsletter that has some of my thoughts on the weekend’s games and also some snippets from our amazing writers. If you haven’t yet subscribed to The Cutback then do that now, what are you waiting for?
In today’s issue: Eidevall’s issues don’t end, imperfect Chelsea and Smith and Shaw sensation
Jonas Eidevall is running out of time
Arsenal lost 2-1 to Chelsea at the Emirates on Saturday and despite an improved performance the tide doesn’t seem to be turning for head coach Jonas Eidevall.
His side have claimed five points from a possible 12 in these opening games of the campaign and currently sit sixth in the WSL table. Title rivals Manchester City and Chelsea already have a four and five point lead, respectively, on the Gunners with their London competition also having a game in hand.
It could have been a much more embarrassing scenario for Arsenal on Saturday given they conceded two goals in the opening 16 minutes of the game. Defending on both goals was also terrible.
However they did rally, mainly through Caitlin Foord, grabbed a goal back and nearly got an equaliser. But unfortunately for Arsenal the performance still feels fairly meaningless. Max Radwan wrote about the performance, the positives and ongoing negatives.
A tell tell sign of any manager under pressure is when they make a lot of changes to their starting XI. I had a look through the last seven games (including the two-leg qualifier against Hacken) and Eidevall has made 21 changes across seven games. Those changes have included switching the goalkeeper several times and centre back partnership. That screams panic to me.
The Arsenal hierarchy didn’t make a coaching change over the weekend and given the two-match week coming, with a UWCL group game against Valengra on Wednesday and West Ham on Sunday, it’s maybe not surprising. They do need to make sure those games don’t set Arsenal back even further. There is an international break just around the corner and everyone knows this is a prime time for managerial changes. Maybe come Monday 21 October we will see some movement….
Let’s see what happens this week!
Chelsea finally break Emirates curse
It may come as a surprise but Chelsea have never managed to beat Arsenal at the Emirates. It was the result that evaded Emma Hayes during her 12-year tenure and her successor Sonia Bompastor has managed to get it done at the first time of asking.
Chelsea got the win but it certainly wasn’t the most convincing performance. Bompastor’s team really struggled to progress the ball or play through Arsenal. They relied on playing long balls up to Mayra Ramirez and hoping she could work her way past several Arsenal players, which she managed to do on several occasions.
It could have been a very different game for Chelsea if Arsenal had taken their chances and not defended quite so shockingly. But a win is certainly a win.
Bompastor has already shown she knows how to win games but it does feel like there needs to be some progress in the identity and style of play she wants from her Chelsea team.
Jessy Parker Humphreys talked about just that in this piece on the result at the Emirates and problems Bompastor needs to try and solve in this next run of games.
Sensational Smith and Shaw
At Anfield on Sunday it was tale of two Ss. Liverpool’s Canadian wonderkid Olivia Smith scored a brilliant goal to put her team into the lead in the first half. But two goals from the WSL’s most lethal striker Bunny Shaw cancelled out any hopes of an upset.
I’ve mentioned how impressive Smith has looked in the first weeks of her WSL career. She is absolutely fearless, very confident on the ball, wants to make stuff happen and happy to take on players at any opportunity. Her decision making can be better at times but she is showing how the goals will continue to come because she has the finishing ability.
Then, you have the utter brilliance of Shaw. She is such handful for defenders, so dominant in the air and on the ball and as she proved on Sunday can finish in the top corner even when a defender is trying to knock her off balance/pull her arm off. No one is really at her level right now and hitting these same insanely consistent numbers.
Last season she averaged 1.37 goals per game (FBref) and has already scored three and grabbed one assist in the first four games of this campaign.
Make sure you watch the highlights of this one.
Elsewhere on The Cutback:
Max Radwan on Arsenal’s midweek collapse against Bayern Munich.
Raphael Adelugba on how Manchester City beat Barcelona.
That’s it from me today. See you same time next week.
Hmm - I am not so sure they will remove him this season as it will be hard for the club to prise someone away from their top managerial job in women's football probably until next summer but possibly could pre sign one like Bombpastor did with Chelsea once they knew Hayes was taking the US job. Football is fickle even in the women's game and now suffering the same fates (esp within the top 3/4 clubs). They only want wins and not every Manager can achieve that in a league structure as other teams develop and get stronger. Those days are dwindling.
Ferguson used to say a club who wants to win the league cannot afford to drop points in 6 games - so that has to be a lot less in the women's game and maybe Arsenal are on the brink of doing that. They maybe out of the CL but they will not get relegated.
What do I know - he has just resigned ! Wow