THE LOWDOWN
Arsenal travel to the King Power Stadium to play Leicester City on Sunday at midday in the WSL. The Gunners suffered some trials and tribulations in the first block of the season which included a run of four games without a victory. Arsenal did end the block with a pair of wins at home to Brighton and away at Benfica, results not to be sniffed at, but performances in those games did little to convince fans that issues had been solved.
Arsenal are boosted by the fact that Renee Slegers says that everyone trained on Friday except for Leah Williamson and Manu Zinsberger, which presumably includes Katie Reid and Olivia Smith, both of whom had to pull out of international duty during the break due to injuries. Smith’s in particular looked quite bad at the time but perhaps there was small comfort in the fact it was a hip injury and not a knee injury.
Arsenal have struggled to consistently create chances since the 0-0 draw away at Manchester United at the beginning of October and while Leicester sit in 9th place, they have only conceded eight goals so far this season- the same as Manchester City. Leicester don’t give much away but create very little too, this will be another low or mid block for the Gunners to break down.
It remains to be seen how Slegers and her coaching staff have sought to address issues around creativity during the international break. But it did feel as though the international break came at a good time for Arsenal to allow the coaches some breathing space to look into some trends and performances that were, by the manager’s admission, ‘not what we wanted.’
TEAM NEWS
Leah Williamson is still out with a knee injury while goalkeeper Manu Zinsberger will miss the remainder of the season with an ACL rupture- a fate also suffered by young striker Michelle Agyemang, on loan at Brighton, during the international break. Katie Reid (groin) and Olivia Smith (hip) face late fitness checks.
Squad
Goalkeepers: 14.van Domselaar 28.Borbe 53.Liddiard
Defenders: 2.Fox 3.Wubben-Moy 5.L.Codina 7.Catley 11.McCabe 22.Nighswonger 26.Reid 44.Harwood
Midfielders: 8.Mariona 10.Little(c) 12.L.Maanum 21.Pelova 32.Cooney-Cross
Forwards: 9.Mead 15.Smith 18.Kelly 19.Foord 23.Russo 25.Blackstenius
A WORD FROM THE BOSS
‘The WSL is a very strong league, and if you look at Leicester’s results, there are many one-goal differences in the results. So it’s going to be a challenge. They have a strong identity with their defending game and the way they do that. We have to break things down and find the right moments to capitalise on when things are organised and when things are disorganised.
‘So we’ll go there with respect, of course, because they’ve made it really hard for a lot of teams so far. We also go there with a big belief in the qualities that we have. When we’ve been in the middle of our momentum and flow, things have felt easy for us, and as a result of that, the goals came easy for us as well, so you’re automatically, earlier, in a state of comfort and that’s not what we had. That doesn’t mean it’s not going to come back, we believe that we can get ourselves into that direction again.
‘What then becomes really important is how you start the game, how you finish the game and how you deal with everything in between and that’s how we manage different scenarios, how we stay focused on the rights things, how we keep on delivering the outputs in our physical actions, how we have our starters and game changers, because we know our game changers very often make an impact and were strong late in games as well.’
THE OPPOSITION
Leicester City endured a bizarre start to the season for largely off pitch reasons. French coach Amandine Miquel led the team in 2024-25 and during the summer it became apparent that the Foxes wanted to hire then Burnley boss Matt Beard prior to his untimely passing. Burnley apparently denied Beard permission to speak to the club and, once this became public knowledge, Miquel’s position became untenable.
Miquel left and former Notts County boss Rick Passmor was appointed. With the relegation of the men’s team from the Premier League last season, the club is not especially awash with cash and that showed during the summer transfer window. Passmor is a knowledgeable women’s football coach with a penchant for pragmatic football.
Survival is the name of the game for Leicester this season and they look pretty similar to last season. With only 8.3XG conceded this season, their defensive record is one of a solid midtable team. But with only 2.6XG created across six WSL games so far this season, they don’t create much either. They will look to be stubborn and frustrate Arsenal on Sunday.
LAST TIME OUT
In this fixture last season, the Gunners eked out a 1-0 win at the King Power with an early goal from Frida Maanum. In April, when the teams met at the Emirates, Arsenal had an easier time of things, running out 5-1 winners with a first half brace from Caitlin Foord and goals from Stina Blackstenius, Beth Mead and Victoria Pelova.
PLAYER TO WATCH
Individual awards largely make very little sense in football beyond commercial reasons. However, the omission of Mariona Caldentey, the runner-up in this year’s Ballon D’Or, from the FIFPRO World XI nomination further exposes the folly of suck trinkets. That isn’t really a consideration for Mariona on the pitch, of course.
The question for Arsenal is whether they can get their Spanish midfielder to operate closer to the opponent’s goal more regularly. Mariona still sits 2nd in the WSL for key passes per 90 this season, she is 7th for XAG (Kaptein is the only other central midfielder in the top 10), she is 2nd in the WSL for passes into the final third and first by absolute miles for passes into the penalty area in the WSL.
So her creative game is still very sound, but the weight of having to be so pivotal in Arsenal’s build up and in their final third creative game has been too heavy this season. Arsenal need to focus on getting her into those key positions more often, whether that is by playing her as a 10 or else tweaking their build-up so that they are not asking Mariona to do too many jobs simultaneously.
MY PREDICTED LINE-UP
Subs: 2.Fox 5.L.Codina 9.Mead 15.Smith 21.Pelova 22.Nighswonger 25.Blackstenius 28.Borbe 32.Cooney-Cross
HOW TO CATCH THE GAME
The game takes place at the King Power Stadium at midday on Sunday and will be shown live on Sky Sports in the UK. Details on where you can watch across the world are available here.
COMING UP
We will have Aidan Gibson’s on the whistle match report at full-time, as well as full quotes from Renee Slegers on the site around an hour after full-time. Jamie and I will have a podcast for you on Monday and we will have a tactical analysis piece on the game on the site on Tuesday. Don’t forget to subscribe to our free weekly Arsenal Women Newsletter.
