Alessia Russo, Beth Mead and Rosa Kafaji had to wait for their chance from the bench in Arsenal’s WSL opener of the season, with manager Jonas Eidevall opting for Stina Blackstenius, Caitlin Foord and Mariona Caldentey from the start against Manchester City.
Arsenal are fortunate to be blessed with a wealth of attacking talent, with Mariona and Kafaji joining last summer. Eidevall’s task is to figure out how best to use all the options at his disposal.
Fans and pundits were at least surprised on Sunday when the Swede named Blackstenius and Foord in his starting eleven at the expense of others.
Blackstenius couldn’t find the back of the net despite having more chances, although he did get a fortuitous assist for Frida Maanum’s opener. Later, Russo and Mead squared off in the 63rd minute when the team had just trailed 2-1. Kafaji appeared on the bench ten minutes later, making his WSL debut, and made a significant impact. It was his strike on the post after leaving City right-back Kerstin Casparij in the dust that Mead was able to convert from the rebound.
Arriving late in the game, he secured a point and prevented Arsenal from losing on the opening day.
There’s no doubt that by putting the two forwards at the same time, Eidevall wanted them to demonstrate their ability and perhaps shed some light on who works harder together.
While it was Mead who reigned supreme, scoring the equalizer in the 81st minute, Russo also found himself clean at one point, but unfortunately missed the chance at the last minute.
Mead, Russo and Kafaji had started the shock defeat to BK Hacken in the Champions League a few days earlier, failing to make much of a breakthrough. It was an almost complete change of the front four for the visit of City, with only Mariona retaining his place, and it points to a manager still unsure of his best team.
Is chopping and changing potentially detrimental to the gelation of new combinations? Eidevall doesn’t have much time to decide who he considers best up front, with the second leg of their Champions League qualifier against Hacken coming to Meadow Park later this week.
Arsenal are 1-0 on aggregate and must win, otherwise they will not be part of the group stage of the competition, having also been knocked out during the qualifying rounds last season.
