Arsenal show signs of being able to stay in the fight all season

There was no shortage of Arsenal fans either. Everyone rolls out the red carpet when Arsenal are in town. For the past three years, their fanbase has grown exponentially, not just through the huge attendances at the Emirates but also with a dedicated away support. The attendance at the Chigwell Construction Stadium on Friday was 3,483, West Ham’s second highest ever at the ground. First and third place are from games against Arsenal, too. If a club want to make money from ticket sales, this is the fixture to do it.

Arsenal have established themselves as the culturally dominant women’s football team in England. The question that lingers is whether they can combine that with the sort of sporting dominance that Chelsea have laid claim to. Arsenal’s Champions League win in May was proof that they can win at the highest level but sustained domestic and continental success has been wanting in recent years.

Wins over newly promoted London City Lionesses and West Ham, both of whom went ahead early on before Arsenal steamed back to earn 4-1 and 5-1 victories respectively, are not evidence enough of Arsenal’s title-winning mettle. There are two away matches against the Manchester sides over the next three weeks which will be a stronger bellwether.

There is evidence that this team are evolving under Renée Slegers though, regardless of the opposition. Last season, she relied on a relatively small group of players. She became interim manager in October, following Jonas Eidevall’s resignation, and took the permanent role in January. The job was to steady the ship and it was clear that there were players she trusted and those she didn’t. The topsy-turvy losses to Aston Villa (5-2) and Brighton (4-2) as they rotated the team to rest players ahead of the Champions League final justified Slegers’s intuition.

That was a situation where Arsenal were able to put all their eggs in the Champions League basket, and it more than paid off. The league was already gone by the time Slegers took charge, and they were knocked out of the cup competitions by the start of March. Now in her first full season at the helm, the expectation will be to compete on all four fronts for as long as possible.

“We want to build so many layers into our game,” said Slegers in her press conference prior to Friday’s match. “So we can bring to a game whatever is asked of us.” She emphasised how pre-season became an opportunity to bring “clarity” to what they wanted to do on the pitch.

“Every single game is a test because we want to bring consistency across a whole season. That is on us.”

Slegers’s hand may have been slightly forced when she chose to start Beth Mead and Caitlin Foord as wingers against West Ham. Chloe Kelly did not make the squad due to a small knock, while £1m player Olivia Smith was left on the bench, perhaps related to the way she was forced off through injury in the season opener. But it was also evidence of the increased depth and variety that this Arsenal side have developed in forward areas. Two ­seasons ago, Mead and Foord were their starting wingers with little to no competition for their spots. Now they are clearly part of a unit.

Equally at half-time with Arsenal drawing 1-1, Frida Maanum was ­substituted, Stina Blackstenius coming on in her place. Blackstenius went up front while Alessia Russo moved back into the No 10 role. The two strikers pose totally different questions, with Blackstenius’s directness being better able to penetrate West Ham’s settled back five, and she scored within seven minutes. When Smith came on for the last half an hour, her powerful dribbling ability was a ­significant gear change from Mead’s tendency to come inside. Arsenal went on to score twice, with their record signing getting an assist and winning a penalty.

“That’s the puzzle for me,” said Slegers, when asked about Arsenal’s attacking depth. “I spend a lot of time in the week thinking through everything to make good decisions. It’s a big part of my role with this super squad.

“Players always want to play, and they should want to play. Their drive should be to play as many minutes as possible, but we also want to look at what impact a starter can have and finishers can have.”

In previous seasons, Arsenal’s squad had a tendency to look quite thin in comparison with Chelsea’s. That was not only about the number of players they had at their disposal, but also about the profiles within the squad.

It ended up limiting them when they picked up multiple injuries, while Chelsea managed a domestic treble last year even without key ­players for large parts of the season. That is something a team of Arsenal’s stature will aspire to.

They look far more robust off the back of their summer transfer window, in an attacking sense at least. Slegers has not developed that same level of trust in her midfield, where Mariona Caldentey and Kim Little look set to play as much as they possibly can. But it certainly looks like a step towards genuinely challenging across the whole season.

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