Match report:
Thanks for joining me today, and hope you’ve enjoyed it. Do continue your footballing afternoon with Rob Smyth and Woking v Watford now; I’ll be back later with Newport v Leicester. Bye!
Full-time: West Ham 2-4 Arsenal
Couldn’t argue with the result or margin in the end, with Arsenal completely dominating the second half after those scares in the first. They go three points clear. Over to you, Man City!
90+2 min: A late Arsenal sub, Little receiving warm applause as she comes off. Kuyken comes on.
90+1 min: We will have three added minutes, I believe.
89 min: Little is destined not to score! Van de Donk has all the time in the world to tee her up eight yards out and, in fairness, Spencer saves brilliantly. The corner is hacked away a bit desperately by Rafferty. Time is almost up.
87 min: Ross takes it, going for the hat-trick, but it’s into the wall.
86 min: Lehmann, West Ham’s best player, is in some pain after winning a free-kick in a dangerous position 25 yards out. She gets up and now this is a chance to get a shot in ...
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85 min: Arsenal are still pressing and win *yet* another corner. It’s worked short again and Mead is played in to tee up Arnth, who is unattended 12 yards out but clips over the bar.
83 min: Van de Donk wriggles her way into winning a free-kick about 30 yards out. But first Arsenal make the game’s first change, Quinn replacing Evans. The set-piece is taken short and no serious danger results.
80 min: Now Lehmann is booked, too, as things get just a little niggly.
79 min: It’s a slight surprise that Little is still on, I guess, but the gaps are there for Arsenal and the tempo isn’t too high now so this is a nice comeback game for her. Rafferty, meanwhile, takes a ball in the face from Mead and although she’ll be OK she needs a bit of attention.
77 min: Van de Donk is booked for a late one on Flaherty. She does have a spiky side to go with the knack for important goals.
75 min: West Ham show for the first time this half and almost make something of it, the dangerous Lehmann crossing to Ross from the right. This time, though, her shot is blocked. Then Little has a *glorious* chance to score after Spencer fumbles a cross from Arsenal’s right flank. She’s literally a yard out but can’t sort her feet out and the ball somehow squirts wide!
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73 min: Arsenal have total control of the ball here, and West Ham would probably like to get off with the deficit at two. I think they’ve done well overall though and what this game has shown, in general, is that the mid-table sides in this division are far more competitive than they were - say – a decade ago.
70 min: Miedema can’t quite lay on a chance for Walti and West Ham spirit the ball back to Spencer, who gets away with a rather scuffed clearance.
67 min: Arsenal could easily get another couple here. West Ham just haven’t been in this half. A minor delay now though as Mead receives some treatment.
Goal! West Ham 2-4 Arsenal (Van de Donk 65)
I’d fancy that is that. The source is familiar. Mead’s corner from the left is well dealt with but the ball is returned to her. She yet again has time to swing a cross in and West Ham make two mistakes: Spencer comes out for a ball she can’t get and nobody from the home side tracks the diminutive Van de Donk, who steals in to head into the vacant goal.
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62 min: I’d be very surprised, on the last 17 minutes’ evidence, if West Ham can come back again but this has been a surprising enough game to make one reserve final judgment.
Goal! West Ham 2-3 Arsenal (Van de Donk 59)
It was starting to look a matter of time. McCabe’s low first-time delivery from the left is deflected, leaves the West Ham defence rooted and runs all the way to Van de Donk at the far post. She makes no mistake, and that’s her ninth goal of the WSL season.
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57 min: Miedema tries to let a Van de Donk cross run onto her left foot and the ball squirms away from her. She’s not been at her sharpest so far, several shooting opportunities having been passed up on, but she’s the last person on the pitch you would write off.
55 min: And another Arsenal corner, but Flaherty nods it away and perhaps West Ham have learned from the first half’s errors in that department.
54 min: Nearly a dream comeback for Little. An Evans centre is miscued to the back post by Miedema and Little, improvising, tries the backheel. Spencer has to bundle it behind from point blank range. The corner is well defended.
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52 min: Bloodworth shoots well wide, but it’s been all Arsenal since half-time.
50 min: Spencer is uncertain again, having to navigate her own defender Flaherty to claw away a Van de Donk cross. West Ham cannot afford to continue this sloppily.
48 min: Off the line! West Ham are again at sixes and sevens, Spencer fumbling a long ball forward and inviting the chip from Little, whose effort is sailing towards goal but headed away by a covering defender!
46 min: West Ham are a little lucky within seconds, presenting the ball to Miedema inside their own box – but neither she nor Little can get shots off.
Peeep! Off we go again
West Ham kick off.
They’re back out at Rush Green. Can we expect a second half of similar see-sawing drama?
I’ll be back for the second half shortly but, in the meantime, Rob Smyth has some buildup to the big men’s FA Cup clash between Woking and Watford:
Half-time: West Ham 2-2 Arsenal
Well, what a half! West Ham had a fine first 20 minutes and deserved the lead but were overrun for the next 20, conceding two identical goals and finding themselves at severe risk of going in with the game beyond them. But Arsenal’s defence has looked wobbly: it was exposed again by the clinical Ross, right out of the blue, a few minutes ago and the second period is set up tantalisingly now.
Goal! West Ham 2-2 Arsenal (Ross 43)
Out of nothing! It’s a bit like West Ham’s first, coming from a poorly defended long kick from Spencer. Visalli is allowed to head the ball on, completely uncontested, and sends Ross running in behind the defence. She sets herself and finishes superbly across Peyraud-Magnin and I, for one, did not see that coming.
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42 min: More joy down the right for Arsenal brings their latest flag kick. Mead doesn’t beat the first defender this time and West Ham are closer to being able to regroup at the break.
40 min: Evans makes a superb surge down the right and finds Miedema, who eventually works it across to Mead. She tries to curl into the far corner and it’s deflected narrowly wide off Longhurst. Across she goes to take the corner and Arnth gets a head on that one too, but it’s defended.
38 min: Rafferty puts it in from the right and it beats everybody, flying out to the left. It was a fine delivery and Flaherty wasn’t too far from getting something on it.
37 min: Better from Lehmann, winning the ball back in Arsenal’s half and gaining a throw-in. West Ham need to start getting up the pitch again – and they then earn their first corner ...
35 min: For West Ham, who have completely gone in the last 15 minutes, it is now a case of trying to stay in this until half-time.
33 min: That goal was coming but West Ham will be gutted that both Arsenal centre-backs have been allowed to score. Spencer was left rooted twice. It might be a long way back now.
Goal! West Ham 1-2 Arsenal (Arnth 31)
It’s a carbon copy! Neat interplay between Little and Van de Donk brings Arsenal another corner. This time the goal comes directly from Mead’s set-piece delivery – it’s a superb, searching cross and this time it’s right onto the head of the debutant Arnth, who plonks in an absolutely identical header to the one Williamson converted five minutes earlier!
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29 min: Miedema fizzes one in from the right byline but nobody is waiting to convert and it’s hacked away. They’re currently attacking at will though.
27 min: And the turnaround is almost complete as Spencer has to save well at an angle from Miedema. West Ham need to sort this out at the moment; Arsenal have suddenly got a real grip on things.
Goal! West Ham 1-1 Arsenal (Williamson 26)
But West Ham can’t defend that! Arsenal keep the ball after that corner and the centre-backs stay up. Mead collects it again on the right and, this time, nobody is really pressuring her. She has time to pick out the perfect cross for the defender Williamson, rising at the far post, to plant a fine header into the far corner.
25 min: Arsenal are getting better though, moving the ball more slickly and beating the press more often than they were. They get another corner and Mead’s cross is well defended by the solid-looking Flaherty.
23 min: West Ham survive another little flurry and then get to slow the game down. They’ll no doubt try and do that when necessary from now on.
20 min: Oh, you’d have backed Miedema to put this away! She has the goal at her mercy after Van de Donk, collecting Miedema’s original lay-off in acres of space on the right of the box, passes back across – but Flaherty dives in to block her shot from six yards. If she’d got her shot away more quickly that was surely 1-1. That was Arsenal’s first real opening, and it was a big one.
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18 min: Mead wants a penalty again, this time after trying to turn Flaherty, but again she doesn’t get one and again it’s correct. It won’t help Arsenal if they start getting frustrated.
17 min: Peyraud-Magnin stretches to claim a deep Percival cross. West Ham aren’t sitting back; they seem to have noticed that Arsenal, with a new centre-back partnership of Williamson and Arnth, look unsteady.
15 min: Ross flicks Visalli away on the left but she can’t find a cross. West Ham look good here but will want to ensure they don’t concede a quick equaliser.
13 min: Miedema has a shot blocked by Hendrix as Arsenal look to respond. It’s game on now though and, for the neutral, that early West Ham goal was exactly what the doctor ordered.
Goal! West Ham 1-0 Arsenal (Ross 11)
Now then! A long clearance from Spencer completely evades Arsenal’s defence and sends Lehmann away on the right. She still has plenty to do and, with players coming back, any ball across really has to be spot-on. But she finds the perfect centre for Ross, who sidefoots coolly into the corner!
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11 min: Mead goes down under a fairly light challenge from Percival. No penalty, and rightly, but the Arsenal winger isn’t especially happy and has a few words.
9 min: Walti wins Arsenal the game’s first corner, out on the left flank. It’s drilled in but Spencer claims it very well.
8 min: A lovely no-look backheel from Little in midfield gives a very nice early view of what she can do.
7 min: West Ham are certainly trying to pen Arsenal in, winning a throw-in near the corner flag just now. They’ve made a good, solid beginning.
5 min: Trevor Brooking is watching in the stand. That’s great to see – and hopefully he’ll sprinkle a little stardust out there today, if it’s needed.
4 min: It’s a slow start though. I will stop banging on about the venue but it’s wide open and doesn’t really lend itself to an intense occasion, in my view. West Ham are pressing high, that said, and clearly want to stop their visitors playing from the back.
2 min: Van de Donk slices an early cross behind the goal. Arsenal will, I’m sure, have most of the ball here.
Peeeeep! Away we go
Arsenal, in light blue, start us off and kick left to right.
Out come the teams! Kick-off will soon be upon us ...
This match will take place at West Ham’s training ground, which does have a small stand so it’s not completely a case of everyone standing around the side of a pitch. But you’d hope that in future they can play somewhere more suitable for top-level football: nobody’s asking them to be playing at the London Stadium but in the long run they need a better facility.
We kick off in the next eight or nine minutes, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on the game – and indeed half-season – ahead before then. Send your emails and tweets to the addresses above!
Today’s other WSL games:
Birmingham v Reading (2pm)
Chelsea v Everton (2pm)
Liverpool v Brighton (2pm)
Bristol City v Manchester City (2pm)
All eyes will be on the bottom one of those, no matter what transpires at West Ham shortly.
It’s so big for Arsenal to have Little back. She’s one of the very best around and, given that they’ve not long since lost another top star, Jordan Nobbs, for the long term it’s brilliant news that she is back.
For West Ham, the main danger will probably be the four-goal Alisha Lehmann. They also have some very familiar faces for Arsenal fans at the back: Gilly Flaherty spent a decade with the Gunners and Rebecca Spencer, the keeper, was similarly long-serving.
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Team news
West Ham: Spencer, Percival, Flaherty, Hendrix, Rafferty, Reichardt, Sampson, Longhurst, Lehmann, Ross, Visalli. Subs: Moorhouse, Simic, Kmita.
Arsenal: Peyraud-Magnin; Evans, Williamson, Arnth, McCabe; Bloodworth, Walti, Little; Van de Donk, Miedema, Mead. Subs: Van Veenendaal, Quinn, Kuyken, Grant, Bailey-Gayle, Mitchell.
The big news here is a timely return from long-term injury – a fractured fibula – for the outstanding Kim Little. There is also a place for the Denmark defender Janni Arnth, who Arsenal signed in November.
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Hello
Back to league action, then, and Arsenal have it all to do. You might remember that, in their last WSL outing a lifetime or so ago, they were turned over 2-0 by title rivals Manchester City - scuppering their 100% record and meaning the pair sit level on points at the top, albeit the Gunners have a game in hand. Joe Montemurro’s side have been dealt a particularly unkind hand by injuries and it’s absolutely vital they get back on the bike pronto.
They ought to do that against West Ham, who sit mid-table, but the east London side are no mugs under Jack Sullivan Matt Beard and gave Arsenal a rattling good game in August, losing 4-3 away from home. So this has banana skin writ large on it. We could be in for a big afternoon in the title race so strap in, send over your thoughts and predictions, and stay tuned!
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