Barclays Women’s Super League football returns this weekend following the international break, as we travel to Bromley to take on London City Lionesses at the Copperjax Community Stadium.
It’s an 11.55am kick-off on Sunday, March 15.
Three points would see us close the gap to Chelsea and Manchester United, who both play on Wednesday, with leaders Manchester City kicking off at the same time as us away to Aston Villa.
NOT HERE TO MAKE UP THE NUMBERS
It’s been a fantastic debut season in the topflight so far for London City Lionesses, a club that was only founded six years ago as an independent breakaway club from Millwall Lionesses.
After winning the 2024/25 Women’s Championship, they wasted little time settling into the WSL under Jocelyn Precheur. Despite losing the first two games 4-1 and 5-1 to ourselves and Manchester United respectively, London City went onto win five of their next seven league matches, notably beating Tottenham Hotspur 4-2 in November.
But, after a disappointing December of defeats to Brighton & Hove Albion and Leicester City, Precheur was replaced by Eder Maestre, who has picked up four points from his first five matches.
Those results mean that the newly promoted outfit now sit sixth in the table on 19 points, 10 behind Spurs but also 10 ahead of bottom-placed Leicester, making relegation an unlikely prospect.
Former Gunners Freya Godfrey and Nikita Parris are joint top scorers in the league with three goals each.
WHAT THE MANAGERS SAY
Slegers: “Of course we know that we’re going into five London derbies and then Brighton at the end of the block, we’re active in three different competitions, so there’s of course mental demands, like there always will be, but also physical.
“We start with these two games and we know how London City has framed the game, it’s a big one for them, so we’ll have to be prepared. Then it’s West Ham and then we have those four games with a very short turnaround, so freshness is going to be key for us this block.” – Read every word of Renée’s pre-London City Lionesses press conference.
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Every word of Renée’s pre-London City presser
Teachers: “Arsenal is one of the most talented teams in the world, so we need to understand that we need to be very focused on the details.
“With these kinds of players, we need to understand the profiles, the strengths of Russo, the same for Olivia… they have a lot of players they can use in the frontline.”
TEAM NEWS
Renée said in her pre-match press conference that there are no fresh injury concerns, and that Beth Mead has been progressing well during the international break.
Leah Williamson and Chloe Kelly have progressed well with England over the last few weeks after recovering from injuries.
Steph Catley, Caitlin Foord and Kyra Cooney-Cross are not available due to their ongoing international commitments with Australia at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup.
FACTS AND STATS
We have won each of our last five away games in all competitions, keeping a clean sheet in each of our last four. We last had a longer winning run on the road between April and November 2022 under Jonas Eidevall (8).
Only Chelsea (9) have scored more goals in the opening 20 minutes of WSL games this season than ourselves (7) and London City Lionesses (6). However, only Aston Villa (8) have conceded more goals than the Lionesses (6), who have the worst xGA figure (6.2), in that same period in 2025/26.
We have lost only one of our 12 London derby matches in the WSL under Renée Slegers (W9 D2 L1 – 0-1 vs Chelsea) and average 2.4 points and 2.9 goals per game. In our 20 non-derby league games under the Dutchwoman, we average 2.2 points and 2.5 goals.
Danielle van de Donk could make her 100th WSL appearance, 96 of which came for us between 2016 and 2021. The only player in WSL history to celebrate reaching a century of appearances by scoring against a ‘big three’ team (Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City) is Ellen White in February 2020 (for Man City vs Chelsea).
Alessia Russo has scored against 15 of the 16 teams she has faced in the WSL, with the exception being London City Lionesses. Should the striker net in this match she will be the third player to score against 100% of the teams they have played against in the WSL along with Vivianne Miedema (17/17) and Sam Kerr (14/14).
MATCH OFFICIALS
Kirsty Dowle has been appointed to take charge of Sunday’s match. She has officiated nine WSL matches so far this season, handing out 14 yellow cards and no reds.
Four of those matches were Arsenal games, including, most recently, our 2-0 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Referee: Kirsty Dowle
Assistant Referees: Daniel Sykes and Luke Bowles
Fourth Official: Stacey Pearson
HOW TO WATCH
The game will be broadcast live on Sky Sports + in the UK. International viewers can find out where to watch the game here.
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How to watch London City v Arsenal Women on TV
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