🧠 Food for Thought - The Consistently Inconsistent Arsenal Women: Three Steps Away from the WSL Title?

Arsenal Women suffered from a lack of consistency in the 23/24 WSL season | Getty

Arsenal Women had quite the topsy-turvy campaign in the 2023/24 season, having relative joy against the big-hitters like Chelsea and both Manchester clubs in the division, but less so against the lower-ranked teams in the bottom half of the WSL table.

This lack of sustained consistency would all but ensure we'd fall out of the title race as the season drew to a close.

"We’ve been saying that we needed to be more consistent in order to have more points than we have right now."

- The boss, Jonas Eidevall, speaking pre-Everton (A) 

But what's been behind this ugly vice of inconsistency? To try to make it all make sense, I unearthed the campaign's underlying numbers and discovered we might just be three steps away from lifting the much-coveted WSL title. Why?

🏡 1. Title-Winning Home Credentials.

Well, for starters, our home form is title-winning form as we ranked 2nd in the 23/24 WSL home table (W10 D0 L1), level on points with league leaders Chelsea (30).

23/24 WSL Home Table | Stats courtesy of WhoScored

It is our away form that's glaringly one of our Achilles heels. We ranked 4th in the 23/24 WSL away table on 20 points (W6 D2 L3), 5 points behind eventual champions Chelsea and 10 points behind fellow title-contenders Manchester City who, unlike us, took the title race to the wire.

23/24 WSL Away Table | Stats courtesy of WhoScored

🧩 2. Creativity Galore!

Also, contrary to what most might believe, we lack no shortage of creativity in the final third as no team had more shots than us in the 23/24 WSL campaign (436).

23/24 WSL Shots Ranking | Stats courtesy of WhoScored

We also ranked 2nd for xG (53.41), but underperformed that stat by -4.41 (49 actual goals scored). Only West Ham (-5.31), Everton (-1.58) and Tottenham (-1.03) also underperformed their xG.

23/24 WSL xG Ranking | Stats courtesy of WhoScored

Indeed, no other WSL outfit averaged more shots per game than we did (19.8), yet we ranked 3rd for shots on target per 90 (6.5), behind Chelsea (8.1) and City (8.3), implying we create a lot but aren't as clinical.

23/24 WSL Shots per Game Ranking | Stats courtesy of WhoScored

23/24 WSL Shots on Target per Game Ranking | Stats courtesy of WhoScored

⛳ 3. Dead Ball Insight.

Finally, we ranked 6th for set piece goals scored (7) and 4th for conceded (5). Chelsea led the set piece goal-scoring charts (10) and ranked joint 2nd for such goals conceded (4). City were joint 1st on such goals scored (10) and outright 1st on concession (3).

23/24 WSL Set Piece Goals (For) Ranking | Stats courtesy of WhoScored

23/24 WSL Set Piece Goals (Against) Ranking | Stats courtesy of WhoScored

As evidenced by the WSL toppers and runners-up, and even our men's team, set pieces are a crucial part of the current game and if we're going to be at the top, our next set piece coach has their work set out for them (following the reported exit of Patrick Winqvist at the end of the 23/24 season). The task is clear.

🥜 The Nutshell.

So, in a nutshell, the numbers seem to underline what's been plain to see. In order to be more consistent and get that much closer to winning the title, we need to work on these three factors:

1. Away league form.

2. Goal conversion rate.

3. Set pieces (attacking and defending).
   

Could Arsenal Women be just three steps away from the WSL title? | Getty

With each of the above that we address, we'll be taking one step closer to the title. Or at least, that's how I see it.