The win lifted them up the table, bringing them within one point of third-placed Brighton.
With the title likely to go to Chelsea or Manchester City, Arsenal‘s focus now turns to Champions League success and the North London derby.
It was a good weekend for the Gunners as they moved up one place in the table and closed the gap to one point over third-placed Brighton, whom they defeated by five goals to nil on Friday.
The league table looks like a four-tier table. Two teams are battling for the title, Chelsea and Manchester City, and there is no doubt even with 15 games to go that the title will be won by one of these teams unless there is a giant collapse.
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There are three teams fighting for third place: surprise package Brighton, Arsenal, and unbeaten Manchester United, who have already drawn too many games; otherwise, they would still be in the title race.
Two mid-table teams in Liverpool and Spurs will try to catch up and get into the third-place battle.
And there are five teams involved in the relegation battle. The bottom two, Aston Villa and Everton, have two points, while the other three teams—Leicester, West Ham, and Crystal Palace—have five points. West Ham defeating Leicester was a big result.
There are definitely some trends after matchday seven, and Arsenal are slowly climbing up the table after the poor start that led to Jonas Eidevall‘s resignation.
Since taking over, Renee Slegers has been very conservative in her starting XI choices, and you cannot blame her for wanting to stabilise the team. The main absentee on Friday night was Mariona Caldentey, who was unavailable. There were two changes from the team that played against Manchester United, with Mead coming in for Caldentey and Zinsberger in goal for van Domselaar.
The team was Zinsberger; Fox, Williamson, Catley, McCabe; Little, Wälti; Mead, Maanum, Foord; Russo.
Renee Slegers talked about working in training on finishing, and she saw the work pay off. At one point in the game, the team had three shots on target and three goals. You cannot be more clinical than that.
“There’s quite some work behind the scenes,” she said. “Also, in the last two training sessions, we’ve been investing a lot of time in this part of our game. So I’m really happy for the girls. The investment they put in and that they get the effect today in the game.”
Three goals in 12 minutes effectively killed the game. Beth Mead started the rout from her right wing with a left-footed low shot assisted by Frida Maanum. Caitlin Foord got at the end of a Kim Little cross. Arsenal found themselves 3-0 up after 25 minutes, something that would not have been expected considering their goal-scoring struggles in the previous games.
The second half started with the same attacking intent, albeit with a little less intensity. Lina Hurtig came on and scored from a set-piece four minutes after being subbed in . Alessia Russo added the fifth goal from the penalty spot.
It was overall quite a relaxed evening in cold weather at the Emirates Stadium, and the fans certainly enjoyed it after the previous performances that were not up to scratch.
There is now a very short turnaround with a Champions League away game to Juventus on Tuesday, where Arsenal need to get at least a point to stay as close as possible to FC Bayern, and that will be followed by the North London derby next weekend at White Hart Lane.
