Arsenal only managed to draw 1-1 away to Brighton in a game of two halves, meaning they now trail Chelsea by four points with two games in hand.
Chelsea will be at home to United on the final day, with Arsenal away to Liverpool. The latest Arsenal result also confirmed Manchester City’s title.
Renee Slegers made five changes from the team was defeated by Lyon on Saturday in order to freshen things up and give a rest to the players who have played a lot of minutes this season. But, the first half was poor, the team was disjointed, the intensity was lacking.
Slegers picked van Domselaar; Holmberg, Wubben-Moy, Codina, Hinds; Little, Pelova, Maanum; Smith, Russo, Foord.
The team was struggling to beat Brighton’s press. The Seagulls had themselves made seven changes as they are playing the Women’s FA Cup semi-final on Sunday against Liverpool, but it did not disrupt their excellent pressing game.
Brighton are the form team as they performed very well against the top-four teams and are also making strides off the pitch as they are building the first women-specific football ground in Europe.
There was more urgency and direct play in the second half, as Renee Slegers made a half-time substitution with Pelova replaced by Caldentey.
The Dutch midfielder gave away the foul that led to the Brighton goal and she was also beaten to the second ball by Tsunoda who scored via a deflection. You do not get subbed off at half-time on the strength of one mistake, but it did not help her case. On the other side, Holmberg and Maanum had an excellent game.
Pelova was not the only one with a poor first half. Bad decision making, lack of sharpness and intensity: Most of the players were guilty of it. It is quite clear and we saw it also last season that major rotation does not work under Renée Slegers towards the end of the season.
At the same time, she has rotated throughout the season, making 3.50 starting XI changes per game and 4.92 substitutions per game.
So the numbers are there, but maybe certain players were not rotated enough especially Russo and Caldentey with 3,004 and 2,916 club minutes, while in third place McCabe has 2,639 and Fox in fourth has 2,506. Arsenal signing Holmberg has allowed Renee Slegers to rotate Fox more often since January while Hinds signed in the summer allowed McCabe also to get rested. But there were no such rests for Russo and Caldentey.
We all know there is a big squad rebuild coming up in the Summer and the club need to address certain things, as mentioned in the post game mixed zone. But there is something that I rarely see mentioned and is missing too often in my view. Vocal leadership on the pitch.
We have some of the best technical leaders on the pitch, but when things get tough, I do not see many rousing voices on the pitch, mainly just McCabe and Williamson.
In the end, Arsenal will end the season having won the biggest women’s club trophy available, the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup. They have to finish the job and get the WSL runner-up place to qualify directly for the Champions League’s League phase and avoid a tricky qualifying round.
The battle with Chelsea will go to the final day. Arsenal will regret drawing six games this season as they have only lost one so far.
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