Arsenal face a potential banana skin on Sunday against Charlton Athletic Women at Borehamwood FC in the FA Cup quarter final.

The opposition

For the most nostalgic fans, this will be a nice game like the old days.

Charlton used to compete against us in the 2000’s before their money was cut by the men’s team when they were relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 06/07 season.

They now play in the FA Women’s Premier League Southern Division, the third tier of the women’s football pyramid, and have recently made a bid to play next season the FA Women’s Championship, the second tier.

Charlton have long-serving players like Kim Dixson who has been there for 18 years. Charley Clifford and Grace Coombs both more than 100 appearance for the Addicks. They also possess an exceptional goalscorer in Kit Graham, who is close to scoring 150 senior goals despite only being 22.

Charlton can also count on two former Arsenal players: playmaker Charlotte Gurr, who actually was a team-mate of Alex Scott back in 2006/07 when Arsenal Ladies won the sextuple and played in the UEFA, League, County and FA Cup games that season; and midfielder-turned-defender, Chloe Brunton-Wilde, who won doubles with Arsenal’s u17 and development teams.

Speaking ahead of the game, Dixson said“They are two leagues above us and are a very good side, there’s no denying that,” she said. “But we don’t really fear them. We just know we have to work really hard on the day.

“They will have played before we play them so we hope they might have a few tired legs.”

“Yes we will need a bit of luck on the day but we have to work at nullifying their strengths. And we have strengths too.

“The FA Cup has been a good distraction for us but the main focus is the league and we want to play in the Championship [being renamed from Super League 2] next season.”

 

Next, Team form and starting XI prediction

2Joe says…

“Charlton are a bit of an unknown but you can be sure we’ve done our research on them,” Montemurro told Arsenal.com.

“This is an SSE Women’s FA Cup quarter-final but they’ll be treating it like a final. We just need to be very cautious and smart, and make sure we play our football.

“We want to win every game no matter who it is. We need to be professional and we need to be smart. We’ll have to manage the game well and I believe we’re playing with a good structure that will take us to the next level.

“You’ve got to manage all the different emotions and situations that are put to you, and the one who manages it better is the one who goes through and wins on the day.”

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