It has been an emotional week of news for fans of Aston Villa Women leading up to today’s away fixture against Arsenal.
Anita Asante announced her retirement at the end of the season and we learned that Remi Allen suffered a rupture of her ACL, sidelining her for the foreseeable future.
It was therefore only right that Carla Ward handed Asante the captain’s armband for the final two games of the campaign. Sian Rogers kept her place in goal after a brilliant stand-in performance against Manchester United last week, despite Hannah Hampton returning to the matchday squad.
In a title race not too dissimilar to the Premier League, with one point between Arsenal and Chelsea, Villa had the opportunity to cause an upset. Despite the obvious threat, the Villans could take inspiration from the fact that it was a draw in this very same fixture that kept us in the league last year.
Rogers was tested from the start, saving a low shot from Vivianne Miedema. It was Miedema again who struck a few minutes later, but this time the shot was too powerful for Rogers to keep out. At 1-0, the Gunners looked more confident and it became difficult to escape Villa’s half of the pitch.
Soon after the opener, Miedema got her second of the afternoon. She drove from midfield through several Villa players without being closed down, and was able to shoot from the edge of the box and beat Rogers to the right of the goal. Rogers remained busy, including a save from a corner that was headed in on the rebound by Caitlin Foord – fortunately offside.
Rogers made another excellent save to push Beth Mead’s shot onto the crossbar, and Villa went into half-time two goals down.
The second half was relentless. Foord scored another offside goal, this time due to a handball in the buildup. Then a cruel series of events unfolded when Miedema struck the crossbar, which then ricocheted into the goal off Rachel Corsie, who had otherwise played well and made a few last-ditch tackles.
Beth Mead made it 4 at the hour mark, picking up the ball between the Villa midfield and defence to unleash a wonderful shot that spun away from Rogers into the top right corner. Wubben-Moy was in the right place at the right time to add number 5, then Blackstenius squeezed in the sixth from an impossible angle.
Finally, Nikita Parris converted a last-minute penalty to reach her landmark 50 WSL goals.
A seven-nil defeat reflects an incredibly difficult game, a difference in-depth and quality, and a lack of the belief that we saw last weekend. Without adequate support, it felt like Sian Rogers was against the world. The scoreline tells most of the story, but having faced 14 shots on target, the Villa number 2 also had some very impressive moments.
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