Arsenal Women Weekly Roundup: Birmingham Draw Deepens WSL Woes
Arsenal Women were meant to return from the international break refreshed and ready to repair a dreadful start to the season. Instead, Saturday’s 1-1 draw with newly promoted Birmingham City at the Emirates only deepened the frustration.
Renée Slegers’ side now have six points from six Women’s Super League matches, with their opening-day victory at Brighton still their only league win. For a squad expected to challenge for honours, that’s nowhere near good enough.
International confidence, familiar club frustrations
There were reasons for optimism during the break. Alessia Russo scored twice and Georgia Stanway also found the net as England beat Greece 5-0 to advance in their World Cup qualifying campaign. Russo, in particular, looked sharp in a Lionesses shirt, offering hope her form could translate back to Arsenal.
But the concerns exposed by Arsenal’s surrendered leads at Paris FC and Manchester City have not gone away. Those matches highlighted game management; Saturday brought the other persistent weakness, failing to turn chances into goals.
According to Sky Sports, Russo hit the post with a first-half header before Birmingham’s Océane Hurtré struck on the counterattack in the 53rd minute. Olivia Smith rescued a point with a superb equaliser thirteen minutes later, but goalkeeper Sophie Baggaley repeatedly frustrated Arsenal, and the home supporters made their feelings clear at full-time.
Where does Slegers go from here?
To be fair, Arsenal created more than enough to win. But we’ve been saying that for weeks, and good performances without results won’t put points on the board.
The summer departures of Katie McCabe and Beth Mead raised questions about whether Arsenal had lost some of their fire. It’s difficult to measure something like that, but confidence, intensity and conviction can make the difference in the moments when a match is slipping away.
Slegers needs solutions, not excuses. Rotation and a reshaped squad may explain some inconsistency, but they cannot explain five successive winless league outings indefinitely.
And the fixture list won’t allow much breathing space. Arsenal travel to Tottenham next Saturday before hosting Benfica in the Champions League on 28 October.
Another afternoon of missed chances at the Emirates has left Arsenal fighting to regain momentum rather than mounting the title challenge supporters expected.
