That concludes the blog. Maryam Naz’s match report is here.
Updated
Here’s that league table in full. Arsenal are doing their bit, Birmingham have it all to do.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal Women | 16 | 32 | 37 |
| 2 | Chelsea Women | 13 | 24 | 29 |
| 3 | Man Utd Women | 15 | 17 | 28 |
| 4 | Tottenham Hotspur Women | 15 | 8 | 28 |
| 5 | Man City Women | 14 | 10 | 23 |
| 6 | Reading Women | 15 | -5 | 23 |
| 7 | Brighton & Hove Albion Women | 16 | -5 | 22 |
| 8 | West Ham Women | 14 | 0 | 20 |
| 9 | Aston Villa Women | 16 | -19 | 16 |
| 10 | Everton Women | 14 | -12 | 14 |
| 11 | Leicester Women | 16 | -19 | 12 |
| 12 | Birmingham City Women | 16 | -31 | 4 |
That was a little more nervy than they might have liked.
Three 𝗺𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 points! ✊ pic.twitter.com/kgZ8vJKZOD
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) March 6, 2022
Full-time: Arsenal 4-2 Birmingham
That was closer than it might have been, with Arsenal losing concentration before Caitlin Foord sealed it with her injury-time goal. Vivianne Miedema broke another record and the lead at the top is now eight points, putting serious pressure on Chelsea with their three games in hand.
90+3 min: The game won, off goes Beth Mead for Jordan Nobbs for her 250 appearance. Relief all round for the league leaders.
Goal! Arsenal 4-2 Birmingham (Foord, 90+2)
As Birmingham push up, lovely pass out the back from Walti and Foord takes her time and whacks it into the far corner. That’s surely it.
90+1 min: Four minutes are added on as Arsenal attempt to kill off the contest by attacking.
90 min: Iwabuchi’s skill retains the ball for Arsenal as they try to see out the game. Sighs of relief as Beth Mead forces a corner that will not be rushed this time.
89 min: A sliding tackle by Scott sets up a Blues attack, and it takes an intervention from Leah Williamson to clear the danger. Well, for now.
87 min: Louise Quinn, as opposed to Lucy Quinn the scorer, is penalised for a foul. It’s getting physical out there.
86 min: A lull in play as Quinn takes a whack to the face. And that slow down momentum a tad. Arsenal try to pass the ball around the back but they look anything but calm.
84 min: Nerves full a-jangling now for Arsenal, against the only team to beat them in the WSL all season, a team for whom that is their only win all season. A routine win just became a rollercoaster ride.
Goal! Arsenal 3-2 Birmingham (Quinn, 83)
What were Arsenal doing there? A throw-in from an Arsenal players leaves Rafaelle in all sorts of trouble and Quinn steals in to chip over Zinsberger. That was panicked play.
Updated
80 min: Arsenal pushing on but also holding on to the ball. They force a corner and will probably take their time. Instead, they play it short and waste it. That doesn’t seem the best game management.
78 min: That set-piece was not defended at all well by Arsenal, and opens up an avenue back into the game. It’s unlikely but the last ten minutes could be more uncomfortable than Arsenal would like.
Goal! Arsenal 3-1 Birmingham (Wienroither, OG 76)
Birmingham get a free-kick and there is chaos in the Arsenal defence, the ball comes back across and, under pressure from Smith, Wienroither can’t stop putting through her own net. Wobble incoming?
Updated
75 min: Wienrother booked for legging up a charging Quinn, a tactical foul they call it.
Updated
74 min: Time to pep up the goal difference? That triple sub was pretty attacking, more players to dazzle Birmingham into submission.
A triple change from the boss...
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) March 6, 2022
↩️ #CaptainLittle
🔛 @buchi_mana
↩️ @stephcatley
🔛 @TobinHeath
↩️ @VivianneMiedema
🔛 @FMaanum
🔴 3-0 🟡 (72) @BarclaysFAWSL 🏆 pic.twitter.com/FHAFM9kHxB
72 min: Triple sub for Arsenal, and on comes Tobin Heath, as Miedema, the record breaker, goes off.
Goal! Arsenal 3-0 Birmingham (Mead, 71)
Catley goes down the left on the overlap, and Mead cuts in to receive, open the angle up and score. Job done.
70 min: Wienrother, Little and Foord link up but again the outstanding Louise Quinn gets the ball clear.
68 min: Rafaelle heads over, having got on the end of a Miedema flick.
66 min: Katie McCabe eventually stopped in her tracks, and another corner, this time from the left-hand side. Mead hits it low, then there’s pinball in the area with Scott getting in the way of Foord.
63 min: The next goal is likelier to come from Arsenal and Birmingham, even if the away team are pushing far harder than they did in the first half. That may open up space for those speedy and skilful Arsenal attackers.
61 min: Miedema tries her best to take on four Birmingham defenders, but can’t get through. Eventually, she is stopped and the ball is launched. On the bench, the ball goes to Darren Carter and his assistant Marcus Bignot, who both show off their juggling skills.
60 min: First Arsenal change, off goes Blackstenius, who has been quiet, and on comes Caitlin Foord.
58 min: Yellow card for Rebecca Holloway of Birmingham for clattering Wienroither, who has been causing her all sorts of problems, with frustration setting in.
57 min: Wienroither, stepping forward from full-back, has been highly active down the flank, causing all sorts of problems for Birmingham.
55 min: Leah Williamson surges forward but her pass goes awry just when Birmingham had been put on the back foot.
54 min: Birmingham take a long time over a throw from Christie Murray; timewasting as 2-0 down, full damage limitation in operation.
53 min: Birmingham, a club staring relegation in the face, would appear to have few ambitions to attack Arsenal. After this, they have six games to save themselves.
51 min: Zinsberger has the ball in hand after a rare Brum attack from Lawley.
50 min: Arsenal have another corner down the right, and did the ball go over the line, no Hourihan drops it on the correct side and then claims.
48 min: Fair to say it’s been a subdued start but Beth Mead and Kym Little try to create something and Little whacks over, having made space for herself on the edge of the box.
46 min: Back away we go in Borehamwood as Arsenal attempt to deliver more of the same.
As the players come out for the second half, Zach Neeley gets in touch: “Chelsea just started a run of seven matches in 23 days. Will be very interesting to see how they hold up, I think it’s a big advantage to Arsenal to be able to build up their lead for Chelsea to see entering that slog.”
Half-time: Arsenal 2-0 Birmngham
Only a minute added on, and seen out with little incident. Arsenal have dominated completely, and though Birmingham have defended well, they coughed up two rather soft goals as Rafaelle scored her first for the Gunners and Miedema crashed through that barrier of 100 goal involvements.
44 min: McCabe is clattered and Lawley gets booked for pulling back her shirt. That’s the first yellow of the game and looked a bit harsh.
43 min: Miedema drops deep and almost conjures a chance for Mead. The ball is played to Blackstenius but the ball runs through to Hourihan.
41 min: Kym Little apologises for hitting the ball too long when her teammates might have preferred the short ball.
39 min: It looks very cold in Herts, it gets exposed at Meadow Park, at the top of a hill from memory.
37 min: Arsenal fully in control at this stage. Their stumble at the start of 2022 seems to have been arrested. Chelsea are having the gauntlet thrown down to them.
35 min: Leah Williamson has not lost concentration at the back, and ushers the ball out of play. She is so confident in possession as someone who is just as adept a midfielder as central defender.
33 min: All that Birmingham work in defence and yet both goals were a tad soft, that one ended up a tap-in for Miedema.
Goal! Arsenal 2-0 Birmingham (Miedema, 32)
Kym Little surges on, and then Miedema has a couple of goes, the first blocked, then after a Blackstenius shank slots in. That makes it 100 collective goals and assists in the WSL for Miedema, the first player to do so.
Updated
30 min: Arsenal corner, the ball coming in from the right but cleared this time. Then McCabe slices the ball across goal and it appears to catch the wind but Hourihan claims it.
28 min: Arsenal are rather reduced to potshots from distance at the moment.
26 min: Rare Blues pressure in the Arsenal half, but Leah Willamson strides forward to launch an attack, and Quinn has to do more defending as he tries to cut off the ball to Kym Little.
24 min: Hourihan, the Birmingham goalkeeper, has the ball in hand and takes her time. She and her teammates need to take the sting out of Arsenal, from whom the pressure is constant if a little lacking in pace at the moment. Though Blues camping deep is compressing space around the box.
23 min: In the stands, Ian Wright is seen and he’s urging on his Arsenal heroines, as one of the men’s game’s biggest advocates of the women’s game.
21 min: From the free-kick, McCabe can only rattle the ball into the wall, going for power seemed a waste when a chip seemed the better option.
20 min: Arsenal a bit slow in trying to force chances? Birmingham are holding their lines well. They win a free-kick on the edge of the box after a foul on McCabe.
18 min: Birmingham being pressed high by Arsenal who want another goal, and to make sure of that eight-point lead. They’re being plenty of time on the ball.
16 min: Fair credit to Birmingham, they’ve come back at Arsenal since that goal, where previously they seemed incapable.
Goal! Arsenal 1-0 Birmingham (Rafaelle Souza, 14)
The corner comes in and the Brazilian heads in, with nobody marking her as the ball loops in. The first of many? You wouldn’t bet against it though that was Rafaelle’s first goal for the Gunners.
Updated
13 min: Blues players - they’re actually in yellow - still chasing shadows. A deflected shot from Wienroither, rattles off a defender and off the post.
11 min: A brief glimmer for Birmingham, who get it launched and Zinsberger has to come out from her Arsenal goal to play the ball. She’s good on the ball.
10 min: Blackstenius is outnumbered by a five-woman Birmingham defence with Arsenal’s other attacker flitting round the fringes. The longer this goes on, the tenser it will become.
8 min: It really is all Arsenal, and they take time to pass the ball around the back. Birmingham keeping their shape for now. But not finding it at all easy.
6 min: “We need a bullet header” says someone in the crowd as a corner is being taken. It doesn’t happen. Instead Miedema’s volley is blocked and Williamson lashes one too before a free-kick is awarded to Birmingham.
5 min: Louise Quinn is a former Gunner and will have to get through plenty of work at the back for Brum. Arsenal have so many options in attack. Little and Miedema are skipping past defenders, and Little has a shot blocked.
3 min: Kym Little starts off an Arsenal attack, and Beth Mead tries to force some pressure. This could be a long lunchtime for Birmingham, they are already having to do some chasing. A Quinn tackle thwarts a Miedema ball to Katie McCabe.
1 min: Vivianne Miedema, always chasing new records, will play in that deeper role for Arsenal, and receives the kick-off, and spreads the play. She soon speeds down the wing as Arsenal set off at quite a lick.
The players take to the Meadow Park field, with Chelsea fans hoping for what would be a miracle if Birmingham pull off a double over Arsenal. Last time was their sole win all season.
Some brief words from the two coaches, with Jonas Eidevall talking about that loss to Birmingham in January. “I was responsible and hopefully we have learned things. I think we learned a couple of important lessons.”
Darren Carter, once a Blues player himself, scorer of the winning penalty in the 2002 Championship play-off final no less also spoke of his players. “They’re just giving me everything they have got. They have done since I have come in. This group is as honest as they come.”
Important piece from this week, please read.
The warmups have begun in what seems a very chilly Hertfordshire.
— Tim Stillman (@Stillberto) March 6, 2022
A growing Scandinavian influence in the Arsenal squad.
🇸🇪 @SBlackstenius x Wienroither 🇦🇹 pic.twitter.com/JhWoQBLBMh
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) March 6, 2022
The table shows us it’s top versus bottom, and Arsenal have to be huge favourites to win. However, Blues beat Arsenal in January for one of the shocks of the season. Without that, Arsenal would probably be closing in on the title.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal Women | 15 | 30 | 34 |
| 2 | Chelsea Women | 13 | 24 | 29 |
| 3 | Man Utd Women | 15 | 17 | 28 |
| 4 | Tottenham Hotspur Women | 14 | 8 | 27 |
| 5 | Man City Women | 14 | 10 | 23 |
| 6 | Brighton & Hove Albion Women | 16 | -5 | 22 |
| 7 | Reading Women | 14 | -5 | 22 |
| 8 | West Ham Women | 14 | 0 | 20 |
| 9 | Aston Villa Women | 16 | -19 | 16 |
| 10 | Everton Women | 14 | -12 | 14 |
| 11 | Leicester Women | 16 | -19 | 12 |
| 12 | Birmingham City Women | 15 | -29 | 4 |
Here are the teams
🔴 OUR STARTING XI 🔴
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) March 6, 2022
🇦🇹 Wienroither at right back
🇳🇱 @VivianneMiedema as no 10
🏴 @bmeado9 returns in attack #COYG ✊ pic.twitter.com/qrpE0FvPWm
🔵📋 TEAM | #ARSBIR! 👊 pic.twitter.com/PlJcZij0kf
— Birmingham City Women (@BCFCWomen) March 6, 2022
Preamble
This is a huge game for Arsenal, and at their Borehamwood home, a very winnable game. Wednesday’s win over Reading took the league leaders five clear of Chelsea, though with two more games played. Beat Birmingham and that lead goes up to eight points and leaves Chelsea, still reeling from losing the League Cup to Manchester City, and not playing until they face West Ham on Thursday with very little margin for error. Arsenal have led from the front all season and after drawing with Chelsea last month all they can keep doing is winning matches and hoping that their fellow Londoners crack under the pressure.
Kick-off is at 12pm, join me.
