The Blues drew with Arsenal in the WSL to claim their first point of the season despite their mounting injury crisis
If Everton were hoping for some light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, then Sunday’s draw with Arsenal at the Emirates might just have provided it.
Few teams in European football have endured a more challenging start to the new campaign than the Blues, who lost both of their opening Women’s Super League (WSL) games by an aggregate score of 5-0 and saw two of their key players suffer anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) players within the space of eight days. That Italy international Aurora Galli – fresh from signing a new two-year deal on Merseyside – and summer signing Inma Gabarro are both now likely to be sidelined for the remainder of the campaign is a huge blow for team whose spending power in recent times has been significantly stymied by Everton’s wider financial woes.
Manager Brian Sorensen and his team have had to recruit shrewdly during their two seasons at the club, often identifying targets more than a year in advance and enlisting a blend of promising young talent and experienced players on free transfers to ensure Everton remain competitive. Gabarro, the 21-year-old Spain international who joined the Blues in July following the expiration of her contract at Sevilla, was the archetypal example of Everton’s low-risk, high-reward strategy and had already shown flashes of her immense quality before being stretchered off in the Blues’ narrow defeat to Manchester United last weekend.
READ MORE: Dominic Calvert-Lewin admits penalty frustration and slams latest Everton decisionREAD MORE: Man City win major Premier League legal battle amid £450m Everton fears
“Our squad is so little so if four, five people are out, I don’t think many other clubs will notice that or feel that but when we have, it really starts to impact what we can bring off the bench,” Sorensen admitted ahead of the weekend’s trip to North London.
Indeed, no team in the WSL has a smaller squad than Everton. That the club opted to recall 16-year-old academy product Macy Settle from her loan spell at Blackburn Rovers last week speaks volumes about the paucity of their senior options and offers a pretty good indication of the precarious state of play at Walton Hall Park even in these early weeks of the season.
“The group is quite resilient after all the injuries we had. Its not ideal but that’s the way it is in football,” Sorensen said. “We can’t start not going 100% into everything we do, whether it’s a tackle or a duel. We have to do 100%, otherwise what’s the point. We have to have that mentality as a team, and the girls agree.”
Certainly, that ‘Dogs of War’ zeitgeist was fully harnessed by Everton on Sunday afternoon as they fought valiantly to reduce their hosts to just a handful of clear opportunities at the Emirates. The Blues were composed in possession and disciplined in defence, with only five of Arsenal’s 20 shots on target and fewer still presenting a credible threat to Everton goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan.
After Everton’s trying start to the season, many in the 25,480 crowd will surely have been expecting an Arsenal procession. Instead, the Gunners were persistently frustrated by their visitors as the Blues battled to secure their first point away to the North Londoners since 2009.
“Our record on big stages is quite good, we have never lost,” Sorensen said after the game. “We do everything we can, my staff is working extremely hard to get the girls ready, and the girls are tough and resilient. It is just that togetherness that we speak about that we need to have, especially given the situation we are in.
“Arsenal’s squad is unreal in comparison to ours, but all the money in the world doesn’t matter. It is out on the pitch that it has to be settled and that was my message to the girls.”
The Dane’s rather blunt assessment of his squad may be perceived as rather jarring in some quarters but the cold, hard facts only serve to reinforce his point. All but one of the 20 players in Arsenal’s matchday squad on Sunday afternoon have been capped at senior international level, compared to just 10 of Everton’s travelling party.
Of Arsenal’s 19 fully-fledged internationals, nine represent countries currently ranked among the top five in the world according to FIFA. None of the Everton players involved on Sunday fall into that category.
It is little wonder, then, that Sorensen and his players were all smiles when they went over to applaud the pocket of travelling supporters after the full-time whistle. But, while it is undeniably a huge – and probably unexpected – point gained, the reality is Everton’s season will largely be defined by how they fare up against the teams in and around them in the table.
The visit of West Ham United to Walton Hall Park on Sunday already feels like a six-pointer, while clashes with Leicester City and Crystal Palace on the other side of the international break will also be crucial. Indeed, Everton’s season might finally be up and running but the hard work is only just beginning.
