Good News & Bad News
I have to admit that this blog is a bit of a new experience for me. In the past I’ve written about either a specific team - mostly the USMNT - or an entire league - mostly the Premier League and through the lens of a fantasy soccer game. Through that time, I was always an Arsenal supporter so my coverage may have had more depth when it came to the club, but they were only ever part of the ongoing conversation.
The Loudoun Soccer partnership with Arsenal and the creation of this blog has been interesting for me as a writer, and is the underlying theme for this week’s post. Beyond focusing on a single club every week with this blog, which is new for me, the rise of the women’s professional game - both in terms of its importance to the club and its availability on TV in the US - has meant that I am covering two teams under one umbrella.
Why is that interesting and/or challenging? Beyond having to pay attention to two teams and everything else going on in the competitions that they are participating in - League Cup, FA Cup, Premier League, and Champions League for the men and Women’s League Cup, FA Cup, Women’s Super League, and Champions League for the women - it means figuring out how to summarize a week that might have gone very well for one of the teams and not so well for the other.
The opening weeks of the season when the men were either winning or playing good games against top competition and the women were winning comfortably didn’t provide much reason to consider how the task might become more difficult. This past week, unfortunately, has introduced this new complexity into my life at the expense of the women’s performance over the week.
The Men Top the Table
I’ll start with the easy one. The men, finally through their challenging opening games, got a fairly straightforward assignment in struggling West Ham. While it wasn’t a blowout on the scoresheet, it never really felt like that they were going to lose. Former Hammer Declan Rice scored in the 38th minute and Bukayo Saka scored a penalty in the 67th minute to confirm the win.
My takeaways from the match were the following:
Injury - Martin Odegaard’s knee injury - he went off in the first half after a clash of knees - is a huge bummer as he’s struggled for form and fitness over the past year and seemed to be getting closer to his best.- Depth - Whereas last season, a second injury to Odegaard, coupled with the ongoing absences of other key attackers - in this case Noni Madueke and Kai Havertz - would have had me freaking out that the club was going to crater and lose their chance at the title. This season? The quality in depth is so strong that we’ll STILL have a choice between Declan Rice and Ethan Nwaneri as Eze’s partner in the center of midfield. With Odegaard out, one of those two players (or Martin Zubimendi) will be coming off the bench. That is just insane depth and should allow us to weather the early-season storm of injuries.
The other big thing that happened for the men was that Liverpool’s luck with late-match heroics has clearly run out. Through their unbeaten start to the season, the Reds got four extremely late winners – including the miraculous free kick that gave them the win over Arsenal at Anfield. Over their past three matches - two in the Premier League and one in the Champions League - Liverpool have lost all three with the two Premier League losses coming on goals in the 7th and 5th minutes of extra time. The loss in the Champions League will be, perhaps, even more disheartening for the club given that it came against Galatasaray rather than one of Europe’s titans.
Liverpool supporters would certainly argue that two late losses in the Premier League do not a crisis make. What they will have to confront is that their two biggest stars - Mo Salah and Virgil Van Dijk - are older and it is reasonable to assume that they will lose a step at some point in the not too distant future. That time might be now. They also have to reckon with the fact that they have played poorly against teams like Burnley, Southampton, and a Newcastle club reeling from the loss of their talisman, Alexander Isak that they would have dispatched with ease at their best last season.
The Women Continue to Struggle
The Champions League title is the biggest honor a club side playing in Europe can win. The Arsenal women’s unexpected run to that title last season was magical. I wouldn’t trade the experience of watching that final at the Anchor Bar with Loudoun Soccer colleagues and members for anything.
What has started to dawn on me is that it may have caused us (or at least me) to ignore that the difference between being successful in a tournament versus a full league season is real and that success in one doesn’t necessarily translate to the other.
My assumption after a Champions League title followed by significant investment in the transfer market was that Arsenal would mount a serious challenge to Chelsea in the WSL while at least being in the conversation to repeat their Champions League exploits. Well, five matches into the WSL season and one into the Champions League campaign, it may be time to reexamine my expectations.
Now, at the surface, losing to Manchester City, perennial contenders for the WSL title, and FC Lyonnes, the most decorated club in the European women’s game, isn’t a tragedy. Doing both in a single week makes it a little tougher to handle for a club that wants to be considered among the elite of the elite in Europe. Adding the context of draws with Manchester United and Aston Villa in their two WSL matches before the loss to City starts to really raise the level of concern.
Going back even further to the end of last season, Arsenal struggled with their mid-table opponents in the WSL. They dropped matches to Brighton, Aston Villa, and Liverpool - none of whom will be mistaken for Chelsea or Barcelona - in either WSL or domestic competitions. Now, maybe they had already conceded the WSL title to Chelsea and were putting all of their eggs into the Champions League basket.
Put together one set of results in calendar year 2025 and you can paint a rosy picture of where the Arsenal women sit. They beat Real Madrid, Lyon, and Barcelona to win the Champions League while finishing second in the WSL. That’s impressive. They’ve also been blown out by Aston Villa and Brighton, lost to Manchester City, and drawn with Villa and Manchester United in league play. That’s far less impressive.
Somewhere in-between those two sets of results lies the truth as to the current level of this team. Of the difficult matches listed, I saw all of the Aston Villa match, most of the Manchester United and Manchester City matches, but none of the FC Lyonnes match. I’m still trying to figure this side out. They have quality in depth but seem to be lacking…something. I just haven’t figured out what that something is quite yet.
Maybe they’re struggling under the weight of so many players playing in the women’s Euros over the summer. Maybe they started to believe their press clippings after winning the Champions League. Maybe it is really one outlier draw (Aston Villa) followed by a brutal stretch of competition in United, City, and Lyonnes.
Where Things Stand
The men sit first in the Premier League as the PL heads to it’s second international break of the campaign. The women sit 5th behind Chelsea, Manchester City, Tottenham (ugh!), and Manchester United.
What’s Next?
The women welcome Brighton to the Emirates on Sunday at 9:30 AM Eastern (ESPN+) while the men don’t return to action until Saturday the 18th when they travel to Craven Cottage for a 12:30 PM Eastern match with Fulham.
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