Arsenal Women’s keeper concerns
Arsenal held Manchester United to a 2-2 draw on the weekend and one name was a surprise start on the team sheet, Sabrina D’Angelo was set to start ahead of Manuela Zinsberger for the first time this season. Which has Arsenal Women’s fans concerned about the current situation surrounding the goal keepers.
Manuela Zinsberger has been our go-to goalkeeper for a while, but after losing to Paris FC in The Champions League and to Liverpool at The Emirates in our opening games of the season, it seems like Jonas Eidevall wanted a bit of a change and opted to start Sabrina D’Angelo against Manchester United.
Sabrina D’Angelo had a decent game against United, making some good saves and keeping us in the game, but also made some easily avoidable mistakes. After a ball over the top from United defender Gabby George, United’s Leah Galton managed to score in an open net after D’Angelo came out to clear the ball, but completely mistimed her kick and saw the ball go right through her to Galton’s feet who put the ball into an empty net.
A big mistake, but you could put that down to the fact she hasn’t had much game time for club or country lately and is bound to be a bit shaky. United’s second goal wasn’t D’Angelo fault as we were caught sleeping after a bad clearance from our defence which ended up at the feet of United’s Melvine Malard, who just got a toe on it to put the ball past D’Angelo and United took the opportunity to go in front. D’Angelo could have probably made herself a bit bigger and maybe came out sooner but there wasn’t much more she could have done.
We face Aston Villa on the weekend and Arsenal fans will be wondering what Jonas Eidevall and his staff will do when it comes to the keeper. But with a relatively new defence, I personally think there needs to be a decision made for consistency for our defenders and as well as the keepers themselves. Keepers are usually at their best when they get a lot of game time and consistency and I think Eidevall will have to make a big decision very soon.
Arsenal were rumoured to be very interested in Mary Earps in the summer but United refused to negotiate and she is under contract there until next season, so we clearly wanted to strengthen that area in the summer but nothing came of it, so I think what we are seeing now is Eidevall try figure out who he likes best as a stop gap for at least till January.
What’s your thoughts Gooners? Who do you think Eidevall should choose for this weekend’s game against Villa ?
Daisy Mae
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Not sure who is better as I’ve not seen much of D’angelo. I was not so happy with the calmness of Zinsberger in years past. What worries me more is the new right sided defender a 30 year old Swede. Her actions of constantly booting the ball long were having a poor touch really worried me. Not an Arsenal player for me. No quality was shown and if fellow Swede Jonas is responsible for this then we are going backwards again. Having signed a new contract it’s important he starts to deliver and time will tell.