The Arsenal are back! Seven years after winning the league under Laura Harvey, Joe Montemurro and his players have brought the trophy back to Borehamwood.

For the game that could clinch the title, the manager made no changes from the Everton game with a classic 4-3-3 as follows: Sari Van Veenendaal; Lisa Evans, Leah Williamson, Louise Quinn, Katrine Veje; Dominique Bloodworth, Kim Little, Danielle Van De Donk; Katie McCabe, Anna Miedema, Bethany Mead.

Arsenal opened the scoring early when Miedema got to the edge of the penalty area, managed to create some space and unleashed a rocket past Hourihan via the underside of the bar for the One Nil to the Arsenal.

The game was typical attack versus defence with Arsenal on the ball and Brighton waiting to hit on the break, feeding on any passing error from the Gunners. Unfortunately for the Seagulls, they did not manage to recover the ball very often in the opposition half of the pitch. Therefore, they were unable to create any meaningful chances in the first half.

Katie McCabe added a second, finishing from close range from a lovely chipped through ball by Miedema that surprised the whole Brighton defence. 2-0 and cruising and half-time was reached with that scoreline.

Brighton came back in the second half with better attacking intentions and created a couple of chances including an excellent left-footed shot by Buet that was well saved by Van Veenendaal.

Then Arsenal switched up a gear and scored another two goals. First, Beth Mead sent a 25-yard rocket top corner before Danielle Van De Donk added a fourth with superb sidefoot inside the penalty area.

4-0 was the scoreline and there was a lot of joy at the final whistle.

We spoke to Joe Montemurro and Danielle Carter after the game and here is what they said:

First, I asked Danielle how happy she was after sticking with the team through the bad times after all the good times and winning the Lleague back:

“It’s my 10th year with the club now and we always seemed to win something since I have been there. And now to win the League again with the club is fantastic.

“Obviously the girls deserve and everyone at the club deserves it (staff etc… ). It is a great bunch of people really.”

Joe Montemurro concurred on that point. “The players care for each other, the love they got for each other is amazing. If you put the football aside, they go out together. It was so evident when we had a lot of injuries that the players felt for the players that could not train and could not be involved. It was amazing. Once you got those foundations, you will have success.”