If a good striker can always get their team out of a hole, Alessia Russo is doing her best to drag Arsenal out of a deep chasm of uncertainty. Her two goals gave the under‑pressure Arsenal head coach, Renée Slegers, some brief respite with a much-needed, albeit still rather unconvincing victory.
Russo’s double took her impressive recent tally to seven goals in her past four appearances. Her goals were priceless for an Arsenal team who arrived on Merseyside with just one win in their previous seven Women’s Super League games. They will be relieved to have won after Liverpool posed plenty of problems and the hosts were unhappy about a disallowed goal.
Arsenal began the match brightly, with Lisa Baum’s effort deflecting on to the bar and Olivia Smith firing over from a tight angle. They were rewarded when a good move down their right led to Emily Fox’s cross being angled into the net by Russo’s incisive first-time finish.
Liverpool were level six minutes later, though, and from a defensive point of view it was a familiarly exasperating story for Arsenal, who have conceded from simple long balls through the middle several times this season.
They exerted very little pressure as Liverpool found Natalia Ramos in space and her direct ball picked out Beata Olsson up front, with the Arsenal centre-backs Steph Catley and Leah Williamson positioned so far apart that they were almost in different time zones, playing Olsson onside. Liverpool’s central striker did enough to keep the ball away from Williamson and lash her strike into the bottom corner.
A curling Ramos free-kick was tipped on to the bar by the Arsenal goalkeeper Misa Rodríguez, before the game’s most contentious moment left Liverpool feeling understandably aggrieved. Jenna Clark tucked the ball into the net at the far post after Arsenal failed to clear a corner, but the assistant referee disallowed the goal for offside against Vivien Endemann, despite the delivery towards the player having been inadvertently played off an Arsenal foot rather than being a deliberate forward pass from the home side, who looked baffled.
That seemed to wake Arsenal from their slumber, however, and Caitlin Foord went close before Russo restored Arsenal’s lead in the final minute of the first half, as her downward header from Baum’s cross was too precise for Khiara Keating to reach. Slegers praised Russo, as she said: “She’s in top form. The two goals are such clean finishes. She picks up really good positions in the box.”
After a very watchable first half for neutrals, the second half was comparatively less entertaining but still tense as Liverpool fought to try to force an equaliser. They almost found it in the 89th minute but Gareth Taylor had his head in his hands in disbelief after Cornelia Kapocs volleyed wide from a glorious, unmarked position in front of goal. Arsenal clung on.
Liverpool are now winless in five league games but their defender Grace Fisk, who signed a new contract on Saturday, said: “There were so many positives. We made them very uncomfortable for large parts of the game. It’s just the bits in both boxes right now that are letting us down.” Taylor, Liverpool’s head coach, agreed: “Performance‑wise, I couldn’t ask for any more from the girls.”
Slegers, who next has a daunting trip to face the European champions Barcelona, said: “The way we defended at the end of the game, for our lives, with so much passion and pride for the shirt, that ball wasn’t going to go in.”
