Arsenal Women: Trailblazers

Arsenal lost 1-0 to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, but after watching the game again, Roberto thinks the conversation needs to go beyond another afternoon of missed chances. For the opening half an hour Arsenal were good. They controlled the game, caused Chelsea problems and hit the woodwork twice. But once again, when the opportunity came to shoot or make the decisive pass, that extra touch kept app...

Arsenal head to Stamford Bridge on Sunday after a difficult start to the WSL season, but could Chelsea away be exactly the game Renée Slegers’ side need? In this preview, Roberto looks at why Chelsea’s more aggressive approach could finally give Arsenal’s attacking players the space they’ve been missing, the risks that come with that, and the individual battles that could shape the game. There’s a...

Emily Fox is staying at Arsenal! Arsenal Women have confirmed that Fox has signed a new contract and we're taking the opportunity to look beyond the announcement at just how important she's become since arriving in January 2024, what makes her such a special full-back and why the emergence of Smilla Holmberg could make the next few seasons even more interesting. There's also the latest...

Arsenal Women have started their Champions League campaign with three points, but they left it incredibly late against HB Køge at Meadow Park. Mariona Caldentey’s stoppage-time penalty eventually secured a 1-0 win after Selina Cerci drove into the box and forced the challenge, but the numbers tell you plenty about the 90 minutes that came before it: 70% possession, 21 shots and only two on target....

Arsenal Women’s Champions League campaign starts tonight as Danish side HB Køge visit Meadow Park, and this feels like the perfect opportunity for Renée Slegers to start using the depth of the squad she’s built. HB Køge arrive in excellent form. They’re top of the Danish league, have won seven of their opening eight matches and came through Champions League qualifying unbeaten, including a 2-1 agg...

Arsenal Women have dropped four points from consecutive home games, following a 0-0 draw with Crystal Palace with a 1-1 draw against Manchester United at the Emirates. Smilla Holmberg's stoppage-time volley rescued a point, but after going back through the game, the numbers and both managers' post-match comments, the bigger question isn't simply why Arsenal are struggling against low blocks. Arsen...

INSTANT REACTION: Smilla Holmberg’s brilliant stoppage-time volley rescued a point for Arsenal Women as Manchester United held the Gunners to a 1-1 draw at the Emirates.   But after last weekend’s 0-0 draw with Crystal Palace, that’s now four points dropped from consecutive home games and some familiar questions are beginning to appear.   In this quick post-match reaction, Roberto looks...

Arsenal Women are back at the Emirates on Saturday as Manchester United arrive in North London with both sides looking for a response after frustrating weekends. Arsenal somehow came away from Crystal Palace with a 0-0 draw despite 30 shots and 79 per cent possession, while Manchester United suffered a 5-0 defeat at home to Chelsea following their opening-day loss to London City Lionesses. So, nat...

For the 50th episode of Arsenal Women: Trailblazers, there was only one player I wanted to celebrate, the member of the current Arsenal team who is the embodiment of the word Trailblazer . Kim Little. She arrived at Arsenal as a quiet 17-year-old from Mintlaw in 2008, so unnoticed that some of her new teammates initially thought she was simply Julie Fleeting’s friend. Nearly two decades later, she...

Arsenal had 30 shots, 79 per cent possession and hit the crossbar twice, but Crystal Palace left the Emirates with a point after an extraordinary defensive performance.   Having recorded my raw reaction immediately after the match, I’ve now watched it again and the full picture isn’t quite as bleak as it felt at full-time.   We examine how Palace crowded the spaces around Alessia Russo,...

Arsenal Women have dropped their first points of the new WSL season after being held to a goalless draw by newly promoted Crystal Palace at the Emirates Stadium. Roberto has just returned from the match and switched on the microphone to record his immediate, completely unscripted reaction to what he saw and felt inside the stadium. This isn’t the polished match review or the final verdict after wa...

Arsenal Women return to the Emirates on Sunday for their first home match of the new WSL season, with newly promoted Crystal Palace arriving after winning their opening game against Everton. Palace’s last experience of the WSL ended in relegation, but this is a very different side. Jo Potter guided them back at the first attempt after 12 wins from their final 14 league matches, before adding Betha...

In this week's Arsenal Women news, Mariona Caldentey and Alessia Russo have been nominated for the 2026 Ballon d’Or Féminin, Kyra Cooney-Cross has won Arsenal’s August Goal of the Month and Jessie Gale has scored for England at the Under-20 Women’s World Cup.   But this has also been a remarkable week for Trailblazers.   Roberto shares the story behind an unexpected signed shirt and hand...

Arsenal’s new number 14 arrives in North London with more than a decade of senior football behind her, over 180 appearances for Eintracht Frankfurt and a reputation as one of Switzerland’s most complete midfielders. But Géraldine Reuteler’s story is about much more than where Renée Slegers might eventually use her. In the latest of our Trailblazers player-profile documentaries, Roberto goes back t...

Arsenal opened the new WSL season with three points at Brighton, but the 1-0 scoreline doesn't really tell you what sort of afternoon this was. For the opening twenty minutes, we saw plenty of the Arsenal we'd been watching develop throughout pre-season: quick combinations, aggressive counter-pressing, full-backs getting high and Georgia Stanway dropping deep to dictate the way Arsenal built from...

Arsenal Women are up and running in the 2026/27 WSL after a 1-0 opening-day win away at Brighton, and nineteen-year-old Lisa Baum has certainly introduced herself to English football. In this instant post-match reaction, Roberto looks back at a game which gave us plenty of glimpses of the Arsenal we've been watching Renée Slegers build throughout pre-season, from Georgia Stanway dropping deep and...

The waiting is over. Arsenal Women begin their 2026/27 WSL season away at Brighton & Hove Albion, and this may not be quite the gentle opening fixture some supporters would have chosen. Roberto looks ahead to Sunday’s game at Crawley, including Brighton’s summer changes, their pre-season against PSG and Barcelona, the arrival of new head coach Arturo Ruiz and the players Arsenal will need to k...

Arsenal now know their six opponents for the 2026/27 UEFA Women’s Champions League league phase: Barcelona, Lyon, Benfica, Paris FC, HB Køge and Inter Milan. In this breaking episode of Arsenal Women: Trailblazers, Roberto goes beyond simply listing the fixtures and looks at what the draw actually means for Renée Slegers and this Arsenal squad. How difficult is Barcelona away? Can Arsenal take som...

In this episode, Roberto looks carefully at the allegations being made about Arsenal’s new No.5, tracing what can actually be established from the available evidence, what remains unproven and why repeating something hundreds of times online doesn’t make it fact. Then we get back to the football. Who is Élisa de Almeida? What sort of defender have Arsenal signed? Why has Renée Slegers added a 28-y...

Arsenal’s final week of pre-season has suddenly become rather busy. Reports suggest Arsenal have agreed terms with Paris Saint-Germain for France international defender Elisa De Almeida, potentially answering the centre-back question we’ve been asking throughout the summer. Nothing has been officially announced by either club at the time of recording, so Roberto looks at what we actually know, why...

Kyra Cooney-Cross has spent most of her football life ahead of schedule. She was playing professionally in Australia at 15, made her Matildas debut at 19, went to the Olympics that same year, moved to Europe at 20 and became one of the breakout midfielders of the 2023 Women’s World Cup before joining Arsenal at 21. But understanding Kyra’s story means understanding far more than the football. In t...

What looked like a quiet Friday turned into a fairly busy Arsenal Women news round-up. We start with the Trailblazers community itself, welcoming new website members from the UK, Iceland and Australia, and hearing from Australian listener Nicki Reeves, whose message about Caitlin Foord sent us back into the Arsenal defender’s early career and reminded us why supporters from different parts of the...

Arsenal Women finished their latest pre-season test with a 5-1 win over Charlton Athletic at Meadow Park - but the scoreline might be the least interesting thing about the performance. After my first visit to Meadow Park, I went back and watched the match again to understand what Renée Slegers’ Arsenal were actually trying to do. And I think we’re beginning to see something taking shape. We look a...

Arsenal Women face Charlton Athletic at Borehamwood on Wednesday night in their final pre-season friendly before the 2026/27 WSL campaign begins. But rather than simply predicting a starting XI and a scoreline, I want to use this episode to help us watch the match a little differently. First, we get to know Charlton. They’re newly promoted to the WSL after coming agonisingly close to automatic pro...

Arsenal Women beat Paris FC 1-0 thanks to Olivia Smith’s superb 91st-minute winner - but the scoreline doesn’t really explain what was happening at Borehamwood. In this episode of Arsenal Women: Trailblazers , I take a proper look at Renée Slegers’ developing 2026/27 Arsenal side and some of the things that were much easier to see once you stopped simply waiting for the goal. Why were Lisa Baum an...