Arsenal Ladies Face Chelsea Ladies In Opening Match of the New FA Women’s Super League

By: Sairax | April 12th, 2011

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The year 2011 is set up to be a big one in women’s football. The UEFA Women’s Champions League Final will be held at Craven Cottage on May 26. The FIFA Women’s World Cup will be held in Germany and begins on June 26. Last, but not least, the new FA Women’s Super League is being launched today and our very own Arsenal Ladies team will be involved in the opening game.

The Arsenal Ladies have been having a busy year so far. They recently beat Sunderland in the FA Cup quarterfinals and are set to face Barnet in the semifinals. Last week the Ladies travelled to France to play the first leg of the Champions League semifinal against Lyon. They lost 2-0 and are looking to overcome the deficit at home for the second leg this weekend. Today, the Arsenal Ladies will kick off the first ever season of the FAWSL against the Chelsea Ladies.

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The FAWSL will consist of eight English teams: Arsenal, Birmingham City, Bristol Academy, Chelsea, Doncaster Rovers Belles, Everton, Lincoln Ladies, and Liverpool. The season officially starts today and will end in August with a break from May to July for the World Cup. The teams that finish in the top two spots at the end of the season will automatically qualify for the 2012-13 Champions League. ESPN will be broadcasting Chelsea v Arsenal live as well as an additional 4 live games and weekly highlights. FATV will also have some matches available to stream online as well as match highlights. Later today Lincoln Ladies will play Doncaster Rovers Belles and tomorrow will see the remaining two games of Matchday 1 played, which are Liverpool v Everton and Birmingham City v Bristol Academy.

Arsenal Ladies enter the new season with high hopes. Traditionally, they have been the top team in the country or at least competing with the best. Arsenal Ladies have won a total of 12 Premier League titles, 10 FA Cups, 10 Women’s Premier League Cups, and 1 UEFA Women’s Cup (now known as Women’s Champions League); they are the most successful women’s club in English football. Since 2010, Arsenal Ladies have been managed by former reserve head coach, Laura Harvey, who has led the current side to this year’s Champions League and FA Cup semifinals. The first team has some great talent, including defender Faye White who is not only Arsenal’s captain, but also England’s captain. She has been with the club since 1996 when she was 18 and has won numerous club trophies and individual awards since then. White is one of the most well-respected and recognized players in the world of women’s football today.

Other notable players on the Arsenal Ladies team include Rachel Yankey, Kim Little, and Katie Chapman. Yankey is an England international forward and became only the second woman to earn 100 international caps for England. She most recently scored for England against the USA in a friendly at the beginning of April. This will be Yankey’s sixth season with Arsenal. Yankey was voted on as Players’ Player of the Year in 2010. Little is one of the younger members of the Arsenal Ladies team. She is a 20 year old midfielder from Scotland and joined Arsenal in 2008. She is a big part of Arsenal’s attack and goalscoring threat, scoring 47 goals in 36 appearances in all competitions for Arsenal last season. English midfielder Chapman is back from a short spell playing with Chicago Red Stars in 2010 after playing with Arsenal from 2006 to 2009. Chapman has been described as the “engine” of Arsenal’s midfield and will no doubt be an important part of this season’s campaign in the new league.

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Arsenal Ladies enter the FAWSL as heavy favourites to win the league considering they won 12 of the 17 titles in the old Premier League. Today’s game against Chelsea will be a big chance to show their title credentials. It will not be an easy game since it is a derby and Chelsea have strengthened their squad in the preseason. The Ladies also have their upcoming schedule to consider, which is looking pretty heavy at the moment. After today’s match, they host Lyon on Saturday for the second leg of their Champions League semi, their second league game against Bristol Academy the following Thursday, and the FA Cup semifinal on Sunday the 24th against Barnet. They go on to play FAWSL league games every four days. That’s a lot of football, so Laura Harvey will have quite a task balancing and rotating the squad over the next couple of months. Chelsea Ladies v Arsenal Ladies will be played at Tooting and Mitcham at 12:30pm ET and will be broadcast live on ESPN. Full list of Arsenal Ladies fixtures can be found here. More information on the game and the new FAWSL can be found in these articles by Women’s Soccer United, BBC Sport, and the Independent.

There are a few Arsenal Ladies on twitter that you can follow: Faye White, Gilly Flaherty, Jennifer Beattie, Kim Little, Stephanie Houghton, Yvonne Tracy, Lauren Bruton, and Julie Fleeting. Get all up-to-date news on Arsenal Ladies by following their twitter account here and the latest on the FAWSL here.

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Category: Arsenal Ladies, Arsenal News

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Diko

RIP Danny Fiszman
Gigi_man

off subject 2.
what a spank from last week and this to the semi finalists. I am so happy that Real spanked Spurs, now I want to hear them say they can put up 13 years in a row in UCL (yeah loiving Wenger today...)
Georgedb1

best thing to do w spurs is ignore em - all they can do is talk and bear a grudge for 90 years. Fact is they did ok in the CL but the fact is that they didn't play any serious teams (AC hasn't been the power they used to be for the past 5 or 10 years even). And when they faced their first Euro power they got shut out 5-0 and got tossed out.

That team, like us, has played football in 3 centuries, 19th, 20th, and now in the 21st, and they're still haven't done anything close to what we have achieved. So the fact is that we do them a favor just by dignifying them with a second thought.
Ian

wait.. your kidding me right. so what they lost 5-0 the first round. we do stupid things all the time but that doesnt mean we're horrible. take for instance 4-4 against new castle. and honestly they had a huge chance of winning big the second leg. two penalties that wernt called. so many close chances that probably would have gone in if the players felt the affect of the two penalties they probably would have scored. i get your an arsenal supporter and all, so am i. but you dont have to treat spurs like they're nothing everytime you see their name. theyre a force to be reckoned with. and you should know that considering they beat us earlier this season
Martin

Long-time director and part-owner Danny Fiszman passed away this evening at the age of 66. By all accounts he worked hard to improve and maintain the club's standards of excellence in all things, and was a very positive influence on Arsenal from the time he joined the board in 1992 until his recent sale of shares to Stan Kroenke. RIP.
Sairax

Arsenal Ladies beat Chelsea 1-0 Yaaaayy! :)
Gigi_man

REALLY off subject:
1st of all I am back home so I will bore you to death as usual from now on :).
2nd I am so thrilled that at the Dallas Cup:
The young Gunners, England’s sole representatives, go into a group of four teams with the top two progressing to the Semi-Finals. Arsenal kick off their campaign against local side Dallas Texans on Monday, April 17 before facing Chorrillo FC of Panama a day later.
:))))
I think there are a few Texans around here?
I am sure they will crash the poor Chorrillo but its so nice any way to see a team of my country to face young Gunners!
Martin

Yeah, I thought pretty seriously about maybe going to the Dallas Cup, and regretted not doing it when I saw some of the young players they were sending over, but it's great that Arsenal are sending a team to play in the US -- the first time any Arsenal team has played in any kind of game in the US in 22 years, I read somewhere. Hopefully it's just the tip of the iceberg.
Gigi_man

it even makes me want to take another plane.
Homey_Mills

So am I a bad Arsenal fan if I live about an hour from Dallas, but am not going to the games? I'd certainly go if it were the real team, or at least players I'd heard of.
Gigi_man

well, not to mention that if I go I would be a horrible Arsenal fan if I smile if Chrorrillo scores? ...hmm no, I think I an a good Arsenal fan haha, just thought of it and felt sick, I hoipe Chorrillo scores and maybe Arsenal get interested in a player, but that Arsenal wins :P
Martin

In other news, Alisher Usmanov has confirmed that he has no plans to accept Kroenke's takeover-mandated offer, which means he will retain his 27% share in the club. It also means Kroenke will not gain the share needed to force all remaining shareholders to accept his offer, which would have happened if he had crossed the 90% threshold (again, though, there is no indication that Kroenke would have exercised that option had he gotten that high).
Homey_Mills

As discussed before, I think this is a good thing. Kroenke still has authority to do what he wants, but keeps more liquid cash on hand to hopefully spend on needed talent. At least that's the theory.
E-z

Thanks for putting this up. I didn't know much about the Arsenal Ladies' first team, though I do follow their results. Wish them all the best!