by All-time Women’s Super League player Vivianne Miedema scored for the first time since December 2022 to help Arsenal keep pace with their title rivals by beating Liverpool.
The Holland striker’s first goal since recovering from the anterior cruciate ligament injury that meant she missed last summer’s World Cup was a powerful effort from range which opened the scoring in front of a jubilant set of traveling fans. at Prenton Park.
Miedema, who returned to Arsenal’s first team in October but has been slowly and carefully building up the minutes and intensity of the game, has not scored in 413 days.
She said: “The way the girls celebrated with me says a lot. It’s a long time coming. I worked very hard for that.
“Since the winter, I feel like a different player again and I feel a lot more like me, and it’s really nice that this one has been ticked and we can all move on.”
It was Miedema’s 79th goal in the WSL, extending her lead as the division’s top scorer, and while her effort appeared to have a slight deflection on the hour mark, the nature of the strike, which went from range, its increasing confidence.
She said: “It’s funny because I told Beth this morning on the bus [Mead]’It feels good today, I think I’m training really well, I’m scoring a lot of goals in training, so it might happen here’, and I read online that I’m pretty good scoring against Liverpool as well, so I thought ‘I’ve got to keep that stat’ and yes, as I said, it’s very nice that he went in and the first one is gone now.”
Arsenal, who doubled their lead when Alessia Russo found Caitlin Foord nine minutes later, have won 11 away games against Liverpool and remain third in the table, three a point behind leaders Chelsea.
The north London club’s head coach, Jonas Eidevall, said he felt Miedema had her first goal since her return this month.
He said: “There is a difference when you first come back to play physically, and you are physically ready to go on the pitch, but then there are many other factors that will go into your performance: Self-confidence , your timing, your technical execution, your explosiveness, And those things usually take a little time to build during that period. How long? It is individual, of course.
“You can see, when you follow Viv’s performances, they have gone from strength to strength, this month here. She has very strong momentum and I think, with that in mind, it was only a matter of time before [her] The first goal was coming, but it came at a very good time today. I’m happy for her and it’s important for her and the team to see her positive development.”
Arsenal and England centre-back Leah Williamson is also back in the squad following her own ACL injury but although she made her return to competitive action away to Reading in the League Cup on Wednesday, she was an unused substitute on Sunday.
Eidevall said it was “unbelievable” to have Williamson back but explained he would manage her minutes carefully, adding: “Leah was available to play but not available for many minutes today, as a plan of that, and sometimes that opportunity comes when we can use it. that and sometimes like today I felt we needed other things to manage the game, and nothing that would stop her from progressing towards that.
“She has the opportunity to have a great week of training ahead of her, and compete for minutes against West Ham.”
Liverpool will remain in fifth place, 10 points behind Arsenal. The Merseyside club’s manager Matt Beard said his side will not be signing any players before Wednesday’s WSL transfer deadline, adding: “We’re happy with the squad, we’re good with what we’ve got, we’ll be focusing on the team. summer window. We’re in a good place, we just have to make sure we go on a run now and pick up points again.”
Elsewhere, Manchester City were 2-0 winners at Tottenham to stay in second place, while Leicester City and West Ham United also had valuable wins, with the latter moving three points clear of the drop zone.
Data matching
Liverpool (4-3-3): Laws 7; Fisk 6 (Clark 6, 70), Bonner 6, Fahey 5, Matthews 6; Holland 6, Nagano 7, Lundgaard 6 (Hobinger 7, 70); Daniels 6 (Haug 6, 60), Van de Sanden 6 (Enderby 6, 70), Lawley 6 (Koivisto 6, 70)
Subsidiaries not used: Kearns, Micah (gk), Perry
Yellow cards: Matthews, Daniels, Lawley, Koivisto
Arsenal (4-2-3-1): Zinsberger 6; Fox 8, Ilestedt 6, Wubben-Moy 7, McCabe 6 (Catley 6, 72); Pelova 7 (Maanum 6, 86), Walti 6; Mead 6 (Lacasse 6, 86), Miedema 8 (Little 6, 71), Foord 8; Russia 7 (Blackstenius 6, 71)
Subsidiaries not used: Williamson, D’Angelo (gk), Codina, Cooney-Cross
Yellow cards: McCabe
Referee: Rebecca Welch (Tyne & Wear)
Attendance: 6,085
