When the fixture list landed for the Women’s Super League season and the standout “Arsenal versus Manchester City” glared conspicuously on the opening weekend page, one player’s name was on almost everybody’s lips: Vivianne Miedema.
The WSL’s all-time leading goalscorer spent the past seven years of her career at Arsenal, so where else would her new team be travelling to for their first league game of the season other than the Emirates, to face a club whose fans have adored her since she arrived from Bayern Munich in 2017?
This summer’s transfer of the Netherlands forward, who is also her country’s record goalscorer, will have hurt Arsenal fans and enlivened City supporters in equal measure. Given her typically calm reaction when scoring goals, she is unlikely to be cast as a villain on Sunday, but it is inevitable that attention will be on the 28-year-old.
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Understandably, Gareth Taylor is keen to ease any burden on Miedema. After Wednesday’s 5-0 Champions League victory at Paris FC, when Miedema scored on her debut, City’s head coach said: “Expectation levels for her, just because of what she’s done in the game [her career], will be really high and we don’t want to put any undue pressure on her at all.”
Taylor added on Friday: “We need to make sure we give her the necessary time to settle into this club. I never played for a club as long as Viv did, for many of my teams, but I knew how I felt when I went back, particularly at a club I had a strong affection with. I’m pretty certain she’ll get an outstanding ovation and she certainly deserves it. But once that whistle goes, that’s when she really steps into her own.”
Her former manager, Jonas Eidevall, wished her well: “Viv has such a great history in the club. We wish her the best, I wish her the best. I truly hope that she has a really successful season, because she deserves that.”
Eidevall clearly recognises how much Miedema has strengthened their rivals. “One of the big problems letting her go is we know that she is a very strong opponent, and we need to focus on our part. Yes, we know a lot about her but she knows a lot about us, so it is going to be about who applies that knowledge the best. What’s going to be important is getting control of the game.”
That battle for control will surely come in midfield, where Miedema played for Manchester City on Wednesday, in a deeper but still attacking role, rather than as a central striker from where she scored most of her 125 Arsenal goals.
She was also deployed a bit deeper in the latter stages of her time in London and Taylor hinted that midfield is where he is perhaps most likely to utilise Miedema’s strengths. “It depends,” he said. “We know most of the history she’s made has been as a No 9 but we have a good No 9 and some good forward players.
“Yes, we see that position [midfield] for now as something that she can definitely bring, and if you can get that type of quality position in those positions, then it’s something that’s going to be really good for us.”
About 40,000 tickets have been sold for the match, which will be the first of at least 11 women’s matches Arsenal will stage at the Emirates Stadium this season in all competitions.
It is the teams’ first meeting since going head-to-head in Manchester in May on the penultimate weekend of last season, when the title slipped out of City’s hands as they conceded two late goals in a 2-1 defeat. But Taylor does not feel his side “owe Arsenal one”. “We don’t hold any grudges at all, because I think that can turn into frustration that doesn’t give a true reflection of yourselves.
“We beat ourselves [that day in May], and that’s no disrespect to Arsenal or any opponent that is successful against us. We are in control of a lot of things and we certainly were in control of that game. We probably sat off a little bit too deep.”
