Believe in Katie Reid – Arsenal’s break-out star in the Women’s Super League

Speculation on the day was that Reid’s height had been a decisive factor, with London City Lionesses striker Isobel Goodwin being 5ft 11in.

By the time Reid was starting her fourth match of the season, yesterday’s 1-1 draw with Aston Villa, no one was speculating any more. It was clear that in Leah Williamson’s absence, the Arsenal academy product had become the undisputed understudy.

Reid’s development even over those four WSL matches has been startling. She had a rude awakening in her first game when she brought down Nikita Parris in the penalty area with an overexuberant challenge after 17 minutes.

“We believe in Katie Reid,” said manager Renée Slegers. “She has a lot of qualities that we want in a centre-back but we accept that she’s young and needs to build experience. After that penalty, she just kept on playing. She showed strength.”

Those qualities were obvious in an impressive display against Manchester United last week. In the 0-0 draw, Reid was trusted to defend one on one against Melvine Malard, who has started the season in blistering form scoring four goals already. Reid undeniably played it close to the edge at points but showed off her raw defensive abilities to help her team keep a clean sheet.

“Doing those things in your safe environment and training where everything is isolated, that’s something else to then coming out into the WSL and doing that performance on such a high level against top opposition, top players,” said Slegers.

“I’m just so impressed with her. We knew that she could do this and this is the type of player she is, but to be able to apply herself like this in high level WSL games. It’s just really, really good.”

Her performance yesterday against Aston Villa showed more of the same. A typical moment came in the first half when Reid was shoulder-barged by Ebony Salmon as she was chasing a long ball back towards her own goal. Reid stumbled but maintained her stride and calmly passed the ball back to goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar with little regard for Salmon’s intervention.

“I don’t think people realise how fast she is,” said Arsenal left-back Katie McCabe in an interview with The Cutback. “There’s a lot of experience around her so we can help guide her as much as we can. She’s got so much talent. She’s very humble and she just wants to learn.”

Even as Aston Villa put more pressure on Arsenal in the second half, with the scoreline at 1-0, Reid never looked fazed. With Kirsty Hanson pressing her midway through the second half, she simply skipped round her and carried the ball towards the halfway line. Despite Arsenal conceding a late equaliser from a corner, ironically scored by another Arsenal academy defender in Lucy Parker, the blame for points dropped must come from a profligate attack. After nine goals in their first two games, they have now scored one in their most recent two.

Slegers has shown herself willing to think outside the box ever since she became manager. One of her first changes was to begin using Steph Catley as her left-sided centre-back. Catley had previously predominantly played at left-back or occasionally as the left-sided centre-back in a back three, but received wisdom was that she no longer had the athletic capabilities to play at centre-back in a back four. Yet the decision paid dividends as Arsenal went on to win the Champions League with the pairing of Catley and Williamson.

What was notable in that decision was that once it was made, Slegers stuck with it, giving Williamson and Catley the time to gel. It would have been easy to just use Reid for the relatively kind start of London City Lionesses and West Ham, but revert to experience for the Manchester United match. Instead Reid looks better with every passing week.

That comes with its own challenges and Slegers has raised eyebrows for the way she put two goalkeepers on her bench against West Ham while leaving Jenna Nighswonger out of the squad entirely. The 23-year-old Australian midfielder Kyra Cooney-Cross is also yet to play a minute this season. The rewards Arsenal are reaping from players like Reid being trusted are significant, but as the fixtures pile up Arsenal will need to use their whole squad, and overreliance can be a risk.

The long-term prospects for Reid go far beyond this season, however. Arsenal have a rich history of developing centre-backs and it is fitting that Reid is standing in for Williamson, while the player she is usurping is another academy product in Wubben-Moy. It has been increasingly difficult for young players to break into WSL sides. One of Arsenal’s other academy stars – Michelle Agyemang – is back on loan at Brighton in order to get the game time required. Chelsea’s Aggie Beever-Jones is their first academy player to come through in ten years. But when those opportunities are given, the developmental growth can be astounding. The faith that Slegers has shown in Reid, who celebrated her 19th birthday on Thursday, could set up the club for the next decade.

Photograph by Alex Burstow/Getty Images