No pre-season friendlies for Arsenal Women as they battle for UWCL qualification

Other WSL teams are currently participating in club pre-season friendlies. As a Gooner, you may be asking yourself ‘Why aren’t the Gunner women engaged in pre-season friendlies?’

Well, the answer is that they didn’t finish top of the 2022-23 league; they finished third, which means they have to play in the UEFA Women’s Champions League qualifiers, to book a spot in the group stages of a competition they reached the semi-finals of last season, before Wolfsburg knocked them out. These qualifiers will keep Jonas Eidevall and his squad busy.

Arsenal Women are in the initial qualifying stage; they are on the “League Path”, where they are in one of four knockout groups and must play themselves out of these groups by winning each game. Arsenal are in a group with Linkoping, Paris FC, and FC Kryvbas. On September 6th, the Gunners play their first game against Swedish side Linkoping. Hopefully, after beating the Swedes, they’ll face the winner between Paris FC and FC Kryvbas, who’d have knocked the other out, and secure a victory over them too.

After making it out of the “League Path,” they’ll then move on to the next stage, where they’ll face teams like Manchester United, Wolfsburg, Real Madrid, and Paris St-Germain in a second round of qualifying, with the five winners of that round progressing to the group stage.

Hopefully, Arsenal will go through these obstacles and qualify for the Women’s Champions League 2023-24. Pre-season friendlies or not, Arsenal will have a good preparation for the upcoming WSL season, when Eidevall seeks to end their league title drought. Arsenal open their WSL 2023-24 account against Liverpool on October 1st, at Emirates Stadium, with tickets for the event selling fast!

But who will play is the question? Some players are only just returning from the Women’s World Cup, while others have had a break before pre-season training. And Eidevall has a raft of new players including Amanda Ilestedt, Cloe Lacasse, Alessia Russo &  Laia Codina to integrate. Arsenal also still have a number of injured players, in recovery from ACL injuries (with the latest being Teyah Goldie). Who do you think will be in the starting eleven?