Arsenal managed to get the job done in the fifth round of the Adobe Women’s FA Cup after goals from Laia Codina and Stina Blackstenius clinched a 2-0 victory over London City Lionesses.
The Gunners were far from their best at Meadow Park, but a scrappy fifth round tie and a heavily-rotated squad suggested that may be the case. A physical battle in north-London meant that Arsenal would have to be strong against the Championship side, something head coach Renée Slegers said “made it really hard” for her side.
“They [London City] stayed aggressive in their formation and I think they made it really hard for us. There was a lot of physical battles, the pitch was quite hard to play on today and they made use of it in a good way,” Slegers expressed.
“It wasn’t always pretty today so I think our last two games haven’t been our best games. We’ve demanded a lot from the players, both psychologically and physically. A couple of players that have been playing a lot of minutes, so the most important thing today was to get get to win over the line and we did.”
Jenna Nighswonger ‘has been great’ since signing
Jenna Nighswonger was awarded her club debut after signing for Arsenal on deadline day. The American left-back was deployed in a central midfield role, something she is very used to having plied her trade there for the majority of her career.
“It was planned to play her for 45 minutes today and it was great to give her a first start and get going. We had a couple of options that that we went through, of course, but knowing that that Jenna could play this role and the dynamics we had on the left side, we felt like this would give the most ability to the team.”
“Credit to Jenna for picking that up because it’s not easy come to a new team, new teammates, a new style of play and you have not been playing it in that position for two years, so, but she’s been great, she’s been very active with wanting to know the role and play the role the best way.”
Kyra Cooney-Cross is ‘a top midfielder’ praises Slegers
Kyra Cooney-Cross has been in top form for the Gunners over recent weeks, picking up a well-deserved nomination for Arsenal’s January Player of the Month. The battle with London City was no exception, after a pin-point delivery to Laia Codina opened up the scoring for Arsenal.
“I think I’ve mentioned it before that I think she’s a a top midfielder,” praised the head coach of Cooney-Cross.
“She is still so young so there are still parts of her game that she needs to develop. But I think as she’s been playing more and more, the more she understands the role. The demands we put on the midfielders in our game are really, really high both in and out of possession and she’s learning and learning and doing that better and better. You see her quality on the ball, you see her physical qualities and she’s really, really good.”
