Welcome to the first week of the 2023-24 women’s football season. The initial expectation was that the first few fixtures — the first round of the UEFA Women’s Champions League, involving the European teams who came third in their domestic leagues — would be a tame start. How naive.
Arsenal first faced Swedish side Linkoping last Wednesday, a club who haven’t won a domestic trophy since 2017 and have only ever made it to the UWCL quarter-finals twice. The game was mainly seen as the first chance to see Arsenal’s new signings Alessia Russo, Canada international Cloe Lacasse and Sweden international and World Cup star Amanda Ilestedt.
Despite failing to score in the first half, Arsenal dispatched Linkoping with relative ease, cruising to a comfortable 3-0 win with some Arsenal originals (Caitlin Foord, Lina Hurtig and Stina Blackstenius) scoring their first goals of the season. So far, so good.
That put Arsenal through to the next game — in Sweden still — against Paris FC. The French club haven’t won a domestic league title since 2006 and have only made it to the Champions League semi-final once, back in 2012-13, which is also the last time they had even featured in the competition.
Arsenal’s domestic and international credentials are considerably weightier — 15 WSL titles (the last in 2019) and Continental Tyres Cup winners and Champions League semi-finalists last season.
It felt a little inevitable that Russo, having started against Linkoping, would give way to Blackstenius — manager Jonas Eidevall giving both No 9s a chance to earn their place before the start of the WSL season. Katie McCabe gave way to Steph Catley at left-back, but again this was a sign of Arsenal’s enviable squad depth.
But 57 minutes into the game against Paris, Arsenal were 2-0 down having conceded two sloppy goals from defensive errors. Russo, off the bench, pulled one back with 10 minutes to go and when Jen Beattie equalised six minutes into stoppage time, it looked like the game’s momentum was with Arsenal. But then Julie Soyer put Paris ahead again in extra time, only to see Russo’s second goal — with just four minutes remaining — take the match to penalties.
And that was the point where Russo’s finishing deserted her, Arsenal’s new striker missing the club’s fourth spot kick of the shootout, allowing Paris to win 4-2 and stun Arsenal’s huge global fanbase.
Paris win on penalties.
Paris FC: ✅✅✅❌✅
Arsenal: ✅✅❌❌— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) September 9, 2023
Cue a collective gasp of shock and an immediate raft of questions — the most prominent being: how did this happen and what does this mean for Arsenal, the UWCL, the WSL and any players tied up in an ongoing transfer situation with the club?
What does this mean for Arsenal?
Eidevall is used to adversity. Having lost defender Leah Williamson and star forwards Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema this year to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries, he is used to finding ways to adapt. There’s a reason Arsenal achieved a top-three WSL finish and won silverware in 2022-23 despite the loss of several key players.
What it does mean is increased pressure to achieve domestically, on top of the pressure that has already been mounting for a number of years. Arsenal have not won a WSL title since 2019 and have not won the FA Cup since 2016.
Arsenal have invested heavily in their team recently — stellar signings, a growing number of fixtures in front of record-breaking crowds at the Emirates as well as beautiful and collaborative advertising campaigns. This is all evidence of a serious ambition to start filling the Arsenal Women trophy cabinet once more, to get back to the glory years of 2000-2012 when everything Arsenal touched turned to silver(ware).
The focus for Eidevall now is supporting his players and recalibrating the meaning of ‘success’ for his team this year. Post-match, his mentality was spot on. “They need the support so we can go strong into the season together,” he said.
It will be particularly important to reassure the newcomers, who will no doubt have an additional layer of disappointment — a big part of joining the club would have been the opportunity to play European football.
What does this mean for Arsenal’s pursuit of Mary Earps?
For Manchester United’s Earps, a player Arsenal submitted a bid for a week ago, Arsenal’s defeat could be sweet relief given that it is looking more likely the England goalkeeper will be staying at United, with no further news of a second offer from Arsenal. Suddenly the grass doesn’t look as green in north London.
How will Arsenal’s finances be impacted?
Prize money for the Champions League is still relatively low, but making it to the semi-finals would have given Arsenal an extra €50,000 (£43,000) to assist with signings in the next transfer window. Making it to the final would have meant an extra €200,000 at the very least.
But, as above, the women’s side (as a subsidiary to Arsenal Football Club PLC) do have the financial backing of the main club. The club’s most recent accounts confirm that AFC PLC will “continue to provide (Arsenal Women) with financial support for the foreseeable future”, so it’s hard to imagine the club’s power in the transfer market will be hampered to a significant extent by the lack of Champions League funds (although extra pocket money is always nice).
(David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
How will this affect the rest of Arsenal’s season?
All is not lost. There is still everything to play for domestically, but the pressure and stakes have increased. A strong start in the WSL will brush off any lingering UWCL dismay. That said, first up, Arsenal face a Liverpool side who have also recruited brilliantly this summer. The game will take place in front of a big crowd at the Emirates — over 40,000 tickets have been sold already — while in their second game, Arsenal play Manchester United, the team who took second spot in the WSL last season.
Eidevall’s side can now benefit from not having to deal with as many fixtures as their WSL rivals Chelsea and Manchester United (on the assumption that United progress through to the group stages — round two qualification takes place in October).
The route to the Champions League final could have meant an additional 13 games — an extra 1,170 minutes (not including extra time, stoppage time and penalties) for players to contend with. Last year, many concerns were raised about WSL players travelling abroad for Champions League fixtures before returning home with only 48 hours to prepare for the next WSL fixture.
And this is off the back of many players having just played in an exhausting World Cup on the other side of the world and with some having one eye on next summer’s Olympics. The lack of Champions League football this season could be an opportunity to allow new signings to settle in and a chance for the entire team to get fitter without the heavy demand of chasing a second European title.
Beth Mead’s return from injury is a boost for Arsenal (David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
What does it mean for the UWCL?
What tournament doesn’t want a bit of drama and what better way than with a shock exit… or two?
On Saturday, Juventus Women suffered the same fate as Arsenal, taking Eintracht Frankfurt to extra time (1-1) and then losing on penalties (4-5). Juventus, who until last year had won the Serie A title five years on the bounce, have been Champions League quarter-finalists as recently as 2021.
It’s credit to lesser-known teams to be putting more established sides to the sword and reminding them to rein in any early-season complacency. Eidevall’s post-match comments were those of a manager and squad who had been caught by surprise, perhaps unprepared for the traps Paris FC had set.
“I think we could see in the first half that Paris were asking us some tactical questions in our build-up that we had not seen Paris do before. We have not been really asked those questions before either because of our limited pre-season time,” he said.
If the 2023 Women’s World Cup has taught us anything, it is not to make assumptions or fail to prepare for those with seemingly nothing to lose. It illustrates the narrowing gap in talent between the old guard and emerging sides.
The downside for the competition is that teams like Arsenal and Juventus would have been likely to attract greater audiences — Arsenal Women’s Instagram page has over 1.8million followers alone and they have beaten a number of attendance records at the Emirates this year. But a missed opportunity for the big guns means a big opportunity for the underdogs to capitalise, which should help create new fans across Europe.
(Top photos: Getty Images)
