Arsenal progressed to the fifth round of the Adobe Women’s FA Cup after beating Aston Villa 2-0 at Mangata Developments Stadium, with Kim Little scoring one and setting up the other.
It took until the second half for Arsenal to make the breakthrough in a tie they controlled throughout, with Alessia Russo going close three times in the first half and Beth Mead striking the crossbar as Villa were repeatedly stretched.
The opening goal arrived five minutes after the restart when Stina Blackstenius finished from Little’s pass, and the captain doubled the lead on the hour to make Arsenal’s dominance count.
After the match, Little said: “Obviously really special to get through to the next round of the cup with a good performance today in front of incredible fans so yeah, I’m really happy.
“I enjoyed that, it was nice. I thought the first goal was really nice play, Beth played it into me off the shoulder of their player and I was able to find Stina, and she finished it really well so that was a really nice goal.
“Then obviously the second, being a set-piece, a bit different, but yeah, happy to get the two goals.”
It was Little’s first goal of 2026 and Arsenal’s first win of the calendar year, coming at the start of four matches in four competitions. “Completely, we had a good performance against United, but we weren’t clinical enough,” she said, “I think today we followed on from that.
“We kind of ride out difficult periods of the game but ultimately, we upped the tempo in the second half and got the two goals.
“Hopefully we can take that into the cup on Wednesday first, then obviously into the league on Saturday.”
Renée Slegers was pleased with both the performance and the clean sheet. “Very happy with the result,” she said after the game, “happy with the clean sheet, how the team defended our goal because there were a couple of warning shots in the first half.
“I think we could have scored in the first half as well, (but) I think we go up in intensity in the second half. We’re more determined in what we want to do and what we want to create and we stick to the basics as well because defending was important today.
“First contact, second balls; the whole team did that today, we were invested. I’m really happy with the result and I think the two goals, happy with the set-piece goal and the other goal is just a really good team goal as well.”
She also pointed to the improvements from last weekend’s 0-0 draw. “I think against United what was lacking was goals, we kept a clean sheet there as well, we created a lot, so I’m happy.
“Another clean sheet now since the break, we scored two goals today against Villa, of course that’s good going into all the other games we’re going to play now.”
With fixtures coming thick and fast, Slegers stressed the importance of the squad as a whole. “It is important and like we say, the role you play for the team, regardless of amount of minutes on the pitch, which of course every player is working towards, the whole team makes an impact.
“But if I look at today, the players that start for us and the players that come on for us, really good, and now we have two days to recover and get ready for United.”