At a time when Arsenal men's team has failed to win the league title in almost a decade and a half, seeing their women counterpart gone 7 years without a league title is worrying for both the club and the fans across the globe. Thank goodness, the Arsenal women rallied, stopped the drought and bring some needed respite and consolation to the angry, long faces of Arsenal fans.
Arsenal Women on Sunday won the FA Women's Super League (WSL), the 1st tier of English female football, for the 3rd time since it was rebranded as WSL in 2011 and for the 15th time overall by defeating Brighton & Hove Albion Women 4 nil away at the Amex Stadium, home to Brighton & Hove Albion. The Gunners knew that any slip off would be a catastrophe for their title charge, with rival and equally outstanding Manchester City breathing down their neck. City had not lost a single game all season, drew 5 matches and won 14 so far, and would have closed the gap on the Gunners to either 1 or 2 points should the Gunners failed to get the 3 maximum points at Brighton. Even more gingerly poised is the fact that both teams play each other in the last game of the season, and it could have been the title decider.
However, Arsenal Women put any doubt of a slip off to bed with a quickly fired goal from their in-form striker, Vivianne Meidema. Meidema scored the 6th-minute opener, and then provided another for her teammate, Katie McCabe in the 31st minute to make the scoreline 2 nil at half time. The Gunners made their dominance counted in the 2nd half with 2 more goals through Beth Mead and Danielle Van De Dork in the 70th and 76th minutes respectively to complete the rout. Stats below showed how the Gunners outplayed their opponent at their own ground, something that is well too familiar throughout the season,
The win now ensures that Arsenal Women can no longer be usurped at the summit of the women's league table by their rival, Manchester City, who now trailed the Gunners with 4 points, even if City prevailed over Arsenal in the last match of the season, it will be inconsequential. The Gunners now have the last laugh over City having lost the Women's league cup final to City in a 2-4 spot-kick defeat earlier in February. The Arsenal Women now add to their successes in 2011, 2012 (making 3 FA WSL title under the new format) and 15 title overall having won 12 titles(1992-93, 94-95, 96-97, 97-98, 2000-01, 01-02, 03-04, 04-05, 05-06, 06-07, 07-08, 09-10 ) under the defunct format; FA Women's Premier League National Division.
The Man behind the Gunners resurgence is the Australian, Joe Montemurro. The 49-year-old former Melbourne City assistant coach joined the club in 2017, and have done really well 3 years on, bringing the Arsenal Women back to winning ways. Players like the newly crowned women PFA player of the year, Vivianne Meidema has become fine players under Montemurro. Meidena's ruthlessness in front of opposition goal has seen her bagged 22 goals, 10 assists in 19 appearances for the Gunners, others like ever reliable captain Kim Little, Jordan Nobbs, Beth Mead, Katie McCabe are few amongst an exciting group of talents brought together by the manager. His 2nd season with the club has brought in his 2nd title, having won the women's league cup last season.
The Gunners started the league season with a plum, hitting Liverpool for 5 in the 1st game of the season, with Meidema starting her goal hunt with a hat-trick, the result immediately put Arsenal women at the summit of the league table, a position they did not relinquish ever since. Though, they lost 2 games in the 19 matches played so far(in an 11-team league format), they made up for it with their 17 wins, scoring 69 goals, an average of 3.63 goals per game, and ensuring things are right at the back, conceding 13 goals, less than a goal per match(0.68 goals), keeping 11 clean sheets, They are sure a worthy winner.
Female football is vastly growing and gathering pace, the English Female National team have been putting in some tremendous result in recent time under Manager, Phil Neville, and the exploits of Vivianne Miedema, her Arsenal teammates and her counterparts from Manchester City, Chelsea cannot be overemphasised in the National team, perhaps it is time for me to put more of my energy into supporting the Arsenal Women team rather than the men counterpart, if you are an Arsenal fans, I think you should too, it's definitely 1 form of solace for us all.
Thank you all for your time.
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