Fixtures
- Aston Villa Women Vs. Arsenal Women – Sun, Mar 24th 2024, 19:30
Aston Villa Women lost 3-1 to Arsenal at Villa Park on Sunday evening.
Ebony Salmon opened the scoring at Villa Park with her second goal in as many games, but Arsenal produced a three-goal second half to take the game away from their opponents.
Victoria Pelova smashed home from a rebound just nine minutes into the final period before a quickfire double from Lotte Wubben-Moy and Stina Blackstenius completed the scoring.
Villa huffed and puffed for large spells to frustrate their north London opponents but the difference in class ensured victory for Jonas Eidevall’s side.
Carla Ward, who was battling an illness and observed the action from the stands, named an unchanged lineup following last weekend’s 2-1 win at Everton.
It would mean successive games in which Ward adopted a five-person defence which was designed to stifle the visiting Gunners.
But the third-placed north Londoners asserted their authority from the outset, with Kim Little testing Anna Leat from distance just 10 minutes in.
The tone was set, and Villa’s best opportunities were going to have to come on the counter attack.
A first foray into Arsenal’s third resulted in Salmon’s attempted centre come off the surface and into the arm of Wubben-Moy, but the referee waved away any half-hearted appeals for a penalty.
At the other end, Leat added to her tally of early saves by holding onto an Alessia Russo header.
That would set Villa up to draw first blood in front of the Holte End.
After a nicely weighted pass down the right channel by Jordan Nobbs, Adriana Leon cut the ball back to Salmon who slid the ball beyond Manuela Zinsberger to put Villa into a familiar position agains the Gunners.
In their last three league games against tonight’s opponents, they have taken the lead.
Villa saw out the remainder of the opening 45 minutes but were pegged back when Pelova converted from a rebound after Leat had palmed away at the first attempt.
From there on in, Arsenal’s dominance grew.
First, Frida Maanum struck the post before Leat made a string of superb saves to perhaps send some doubts into Arsenal minds.
But just as it was looking like Villa would frustrate the visitors all the way to the final whistle, the hammer blow came.
Wubben-Moy headed beyond Leat before Blackstenius scored a dubious third within a minute to snatch the game from Villa’s grasp.
Ward cannot fault the effort shown from her team this evening, but they will be bitterly disappointed not to come away from B6 with a point or three.
