Arsenal crashed out of the Women’s FA Cup on Sunday, and both Renée Slegers and Kim Little were clear in the aftermath that the holders had fallen below the standard required against Brighton & Hove Albion.
It was a damaging afternoon at Meadow Park for the European champions, who were beaten 2-0 after goals from Madison Haley and Caitlin Hayes sent Brighton into the semi-finals.
Arsenal thought they had found a way back in to the game when Stina Blackstenius had the ball in the net, only for the effort to be ruled out, and from there the visitors took control of the tie in the moments that mattered.
Fran Kirby created both goals, first slipping Haley through early in the second half and then delivering the corner from which Hayes headed past Daphne van Domselaar.
For Slegers, there was no attempt to dress up the result.
The Arsenal head coach accepted Brighton deserved to go through and admitted her side simply did not produce enough in attack to turn the tie their way. “I think we have to put our hands up and own the performance and congratulate Brighton because they managed the game better than us,” she said after the game.
“They were clinical in the finishes they had, and we didn’t create big enough, and enough chances to win the game today.”
That was the key frustration for Arsenal. Even after falling two behind, they had territory and pressure, but not the quality to make it count. Slegers felt the problem began earlier, with Arsenal unable to create the rhythm needed to open Brighton up.
“I think creating our spaces, and creating rhythm and tempo on the ball was hard for us today,” she explained. “Playing to the circumstances, we didn’t do as well as Brighton did today and I think because of that it was hard to create spaces in and around the box to create clear cut chances.
“So I think the chances we had were quite congested in front of the ball, so the box was congested, or just that final detail when we broke through.”
The immediate consequence is that Arsenal’s FA Cup run is over, but Slegers was also clear that the season still contains major targets, even if that only sharpened the disappointment of this defeat. “Of course we look forward to that because we want to be competing,” Slegers said, “but that’s also why we’re very disappointed today, because we want to be competing in the FA Cup as well.”
Little struck a similar tone, with the captain making clear Arsenal had fallen short of their own expectations. “Just really disappointed, obviously to lose today and be out of the cup,” she said.
She added: “We prepared for the game with the detail to come in today to try and win the game, but obviously today the performance wasn’t what we needed. Credit to Brighton, obviously, for getting the result and making it through.”
There is now an international break before Arsenal return for the final stretch of the campaign, and Little suggested that could be helpful, even if the defeat will linger. “You obviously don’t want to sit with it for too long, we’re professionals, so we know how to respond to situations like this,” she said.
“We’ll obviously be disappointed in our performance and we’ll reflect, assess our individual and team performance, and what we did today, what didn’t go right. Then we’ll obviously look to put that right coming back after the break.
“I think we need to look at where we are in our performances over this block and this year. We are in a really good place, we know that. One result doesn’t determine or change that, but we also have to be honest with ourselves with how the performance and the result went today. We wanted to be better than that, so we’ll look to make sure that happens.”