Brighton & Hove Albion Women v Arsenal Preview

THE LOWDOWN
Arsenal travel to Crawley on Monday to take on Brighton & Hove Albion in their penultimate WSL game. A win guarantees Arsenal 2nd place in the WSL with a game to spare. The team are aiming to get back on track after a heavily rotated side were defeated 5-2 away at Aston Villa on Wednesday night. The context of that performance and defeat were understandable, with Renee Slegers making seven changes to her starting line-up from Sunday’s victory over Lyon in France. The players arrived home in the early hours of Monday morning and then only had one clear day to prepare for the Villa match.

Manchester United’s defeat to Chelsea later the same evening keeps them in the driving seat for 2nd place and Arsenal finish their WSL season with a home game against Marc Skinner’s side. While Villa was a one off aberration in terms of context, it also has to be a one-off aberration in terms of result and performance too. Another stodgy display like the one at Villa Park will be of greater concern and give off the impression that minds have totally turned to the Champions League Final on May 24.

After Wednesday evening, Renee Slegers told Arseblog News that her team now needs to ‘neutralise’ after a huge high in Lyon and a disappointment in Birmingham. I imagine the starting line-up for the final two games will take on a much more familiar look and with a longer run-up at this game, the Gunners ought to be in a better position to put their best foot forward against the Seagulls.

Arsenal have an excellent record against Brighton and have yet to drop a WSL point against them since their promotion to the top flight in 2018-19. They will need to continue that to get their WSL show back on the road and realign and refocus. Brighton, like Aston Villa before them, can play with freedom and with Liverpool and West Ham just behind them, they will want to hang on to 5th place and the ‘best of the rest’ tag in the WSL table.

TEAM NEWS
Daphne van Domselaar faces a late check on an ankle injury that kept her out of Wednesday’s game against her former club Aston Villa. Laia Codina is also a doubt due to an ongoing muscle injury. Lina Hurtig is out.

Available Squad
Goalkeepers: 1.Zinsberger 40.Williams
Defenders: 2.Fox 3.Wubben-Moy 6.Williamson 7.Catley 11.McCabe 22.Nighswonger 28.Ilestedt 62.Reid
Midfielders: 8.Mariona 10.Little 12.L.Maanum 13.Walti 21.Pelova 32.Cooney-Cross
Forwards: 9.Mead 16.Kafaji 18.Kelly 19.Foord 23.Russo 25.Blackstenius

A WORD FROM THE BOSS
‘They will probably play around with ideas to see how they can beat our pressing system, we are going to look at it in a very detailed way. I need to do the detailed preview with Brighton, we are going to do that tomorrow (Thursday) as a staff and from there we will build the plan.

‘We played well against them in those two games this season with two different teams. The performance at the Emirates in the WSL and in the cup and we had a lot of players playing against Brighton in those two games, which is very positive. I am happy with those performances but this is a whole new game, they are further in their development as a team and they will pose us new challenges. You play against an opponent but come away with something else and we came away from the Lyon game and the Villa game, so we have to build ourselves to play against Brighton.’

LAST TIME OUT
The teams met at Crawley in January in the quarter-finals of the Subway Cup and Arsenal ran out 4-0 winners with goals from Frida Maanum, Katie McCabe, Kyra Cooney-Cross and Mariona. In the reverse fixture at the Emirates in November, Arsenal won 5-0 thanks to goals from Beth Mead, Caitlin Foord, Frida Maanum, Lina Hurtig and Alessia Russo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQmiGJwWGpE

THE OPPOSITION
Brighton suffered some managerial instability following the departure of Hope Powell from the manager’s position in October 2022. Powell had prioritised solidity and defensive rigour to keep Brighton away from relegation but the style began to go a little stale and the club decided they wanted to do more than survive. Jens Scheuer and current Arsenal analyst Mel Phillips were tried as Head Coaches but did not last very long as Brighton struggled to find a new identity.

Australian coach Dario Vidosic has come in this season with a progressive style and added experienced WSL campaigners like Nikita Parris and Fran Kirby, underpinned by former Gunner Vicky Losada in midfield. The Seagulls games tend to be high scoring and can sometimes be chaotic. They have scored 30 goals in their 20 league games so far, but have conceded 36. To put that into perspective, Leicester City are 11th and have conceded 33. They have a lot of firepower but their high risk / high reward style has plenty of risk and plenty of reward baked in.

They have supplemented experience like Parris, Kirby, Cankovic, Bremer and Losada with younger loan signings, like Arsenal’s own Michelle Agyemang and Barca attacker Bruna Vilamala. The fact that they have two Barcelona graduates in their team in Losada and Vilamala tells you how much security on the ball matters to Vidosic. But they also get the ball forwards quickly to Kirby, Parris and Symonds. They like to play into wide areas early in their attack and though they like to pass out from the back, they like to move the ball quickly.

PLAYER TO WATCH
With Daphne van Domselaar pushed hard to play the semi-final against Lyon, the Dutch goalkeeper could not play against Aston Villa on Wednesday and there is possibly a chance she won’t be able to play in this game. (I am speculating here). That means Manu Zinsberger could retain her place in goal and it is fair to say she has come under the spotlight among Arsenal fans. That there is a drop off between first and second choice should not be a surprise.

In isolation, a back up goalkeeper with coming up to 300 appearances for Arsenal and Bayern Munich and who has over 100 international caps, coming into the prime years for a goalkeeper is difficult to beat for a back up. The issue is that she has been at Arsenal for six years this summer and been first choice for a lot of that, which does just mean that fans get bored and want to see something else. Back up goalkeeper is a really difficult task because when you are in and out of the team, you just cannot show your best form.

It is a position that relies on regularity and routine. There is no denying that she made a mistake in the UWCL quarter-final against Real Madrid, that the defence looked more assured with van Domselaar in Lyon and that Zinsberger will not look back on two of the goals she conceded from one-on-one situations fondly from Wednesday evening. It is a tough spot for her to be in and many supporters have reverted to blaming her for every concession. She needs a good performance, if indeed she plays, to quell the tide of public opinion.

PREDICTED LINE UPS

Subs: 3.Wubben-Moy 9.Mead 13.Walti 21.Pelova 22.Nighswonger 25.Blackstenius 28.Ilestedt 40.Williams 62.Reid

HOW TO CATCH THE GAME
The match takes place at Crawley Town’s Broadfield Stadium at 4pm on Sunday and will be shown live on Sky Sports in the UK.

COMING UP
We will have every word of Renee Slegers’ post-match press conference online around an hour after the final whistle. Jamie and I will record a podcast for you on the game on Tuesday.

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