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Plan B

Stina Blackstenius is Arsenal’s top goal scorer in all competitions this season with 14 goals. There are some obvious caveats here, with the signing of Alessia Russo, Blackstenius has often been on the bench in the WSL, starting three league games. Arsenal have rotated in the Conti Cup with the Swede starting every game in that competition, where she has scored nine of her goals. (She has three in the WSL, one in the FA Cup and one in the Champions League qualifiers).

10 of her 14 goals have been against top flight opposition (including Linkoping). Of course, all of this has led many to question whether Blackstenius, the only Arsenal player to take part in every single game in 2022-23, warrants more than her three WSL starts so far in this campaign- especially as Arsenal have toiled against deep block defences.

My primary argument would be that Arsenal have used her very well and maximised her strengths. Two of her three WSL starts have been against Manchester United this season and that is because United leave space in behind. After the game at Leigh Sports Village in October, I asked Jonas Eidevall about starting Stina upfront with Russo on the right wing.

‘Our thinking was that they would be a little bit vulnerable on the counter attack, we thought about how we wanted to set up our pressing and the zones we wanted to win the ball in. We thought we could use some key qualities with Stina’s running in behind.’ And after the 3-1 win over United in February, I asked a similar question.

‘United is a very strong team they do open up some gaps and they step out and it is really important to have movement against that.’ Basically, when Blackstenius starts, it is an excellent clue that Arsenal believe there will be space in behind to punish. Her late winner off the bench against Manchester City in October was probably her biggest goal so far this season and bringing her on for Russo for the last 20 minutes of the game was an adjustment on Eidevall’s part to the pattern of the game, as he told me afterwards.

‘Players were a little bit tired as well, they are coming back from international break, instead of trying to change that in the second half, I brought on Stina because I thought ‘if that is the way we are going to do it, instead of trying to be too hollow and playing inside, let’s stay compact and then when we do win the ball we have one of the best players at attacking the channels in the world.’ Blackstenius scored the winning goal by running onto a lofted McCabe pass into the channel.

In short, Blackstenius plays when Arsenal think there is going to be space in the channels or that they will face a high defensive line (it’s no surprise that one of her WSL goals was against Leicester City). This was most brutally illustrated during last week’s 4-0 win over Aston Villa in the Conti Cup semi-final. Villa leave a lot of space behind their full-backs and left-back Maz Pacheco pushes really high.

Arsenal used Blackstenius to exploit that space in the right hand channel and used Russo on the left wing because of her strength attacking the back post. Stina is a horse for a particular type of course. The issue for her is that most WSL teams Arsenal play are not as obliging with their defensive line as Manchester United and Aston Villa, or a Manchester City team chasing a late winner.

Eidevall brought in Alessia Russo on a good wage during the summer. The club were willing to break the world transfer record to buy her last January. It is a significant investment and I think it has since become clear that Eidevall wants to remould Russo slightly into more of a penalty box killer. Following her winning goal against Spurs recently, Eidevall was asked whether he wanted Russo to be more selfish to score more six yard area tap ins.

‘As a 9 one of your main responsibilities is to score goals. That is what you contribute to the team, I do not see that as selfish.’ Naturally this poses questions for Blackstenius, who is a very important tool in Eidevall’s toolbox but will probably always play a secondary role to Alessia Russo. Having a ‘Plan B’ striker of Blackstenius’ quality is great for Arsenal, who are keen to extend Stina’s current contract, there is a question about how much Blackstenius will relish that role, however.

Interestingly, Stina was incredibly productive in last season’s Champions League, with five goals and four assists in the competition. That included goals in both legs of the semi-final against Wolfsburg and a big goal against Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals. Defensive lines tend to higher in the Champions League and Blackstenius lost that avenue to greater inclusion this season (a problem shared by plenty of others in Arsenal’s sizeable squad).

Asked about keeping squad players happy some years ago, Chelsea boss Emma Hayes answered, ‘My job isn’t to keep players happy, it’s to win matches.’ It’s an approach shared by Jonas Eidevall who said earlier this season, ‘You cannot make selection decisions just to keep players happy, it doesn’t work.’

Whether Blackstenius’ skill set can translate effectively against deep blocks is one question, a more pertinent one is ‘can she perform so well that she relegates Russo in the pecking order?’ It seems unlikely, so unless Eidevall adopts a twin striker system (and I retain my curiosity about a 352 system, which I think Arsenal have the players for) then her current role is unlikely to alter drastically. It’s a great situation for Arsenal, it remains to be seen whether Stina shares that view on a personal career level.