Pelova performance outstanding against Watford
Jonas Eidevall and our Arsenal women walked away victorious after our match against Watford in the 4th round of the Women’s FA Cup, after dominating the game and walking away 5-1 winners at Meadow Park. Eidevall picked a strong line up to face the Watford Women and I think made it clear that we wouldn’t be taking any chances in the pursuit of domestic silverware this season.
A standout performance from a lot of our women but for me, nobody shined the way Victoria Pelova did. She seemed to be anywhere and everywhere you looked, tracking back, but also pushing the ball forward, getting into all the right positions and helping create chances for herself and her teammates. She picked up two assists in the game and was very close to getting on the scoresheet herself, and playing a big part in the build up to almost every goal.
Just 5 minutes into the game Beth Mead was seen making a run down the right wing, spotting Pelova who was lingering on the edge of the box asking for the ball, Mead passed the ball into the path of Pelova who took aim and fired the ball at the goal but her shot was saved by the keeper. Alessia Russo was waiting in the perfect position to fire in the saved shot and make it 1-0.
Not long after that Mead was seen making another run down the right wing and in almost the exact same sequence, looked for the pass to Pelova. Pelova had taken a quick scan around her and had noticed Lia Walti lingering just behind her and dummied the pass to go behind her, getting the slightest of touches through to Walti behind her, who was waiting to take aim and fired the ball into the bottom corner of the net, another goal that Pelova had a big hand in and managed to bag the assist.
In the second half she was at it again with a lovely weighted through ball into the path of Stina Blackstenius who fired the ball past the keeper with her first touch of the game to make it 3-0 and Pelova walked away with yet another assist.
Eidevall had this to say on Pelova’s performance via Arsenal:
“She’s a very creative player, and it’s one of those players that we want to be able to get higher up on the pitch and be an influence for us in the final third,” Jonas elaborated. “We managed to do that with good positioning and passing play as well, so that’s nice to see.”
Pelova has really found her form and since joining Arsenal, has become a major part of the women’s set up and it just seems like the more time that passes, the better she gets. It’s clear that she’s got a great bond with her teammates and has settled into this Arsenal squad perfectly. I think she becomes a huge part of the future of this club and has been an unbelievably good pick up for the club.
What’s your thoughts on Pelova’s performance Gooners?
Daisy Mae
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Was a convincing win and how we went about it showed we meant business.
Even in the dying minutes we wanted more, nice team performance with five different goal scorers
What a gem Pelova is!