Arsenal manager Joe Montemurro saw his side come up short in their Vitality Women’s FA Cup semi-final tie against Manchester City last night.
The Gunners went down 2-1 to the current Vitality Women’s FA Cup holders at The Academy Stadium and were consequently eliminated from the competition.
Arsenal were missing a number of key players coming into the match including Lisa Evans and Jill Roord whilst Lisa Walti started on the bench. Montemurro commented on some of the injuries in the post-match press conference.
“Lisa copped a heavy knock against Tottenham” said the Arsenal head coach. “She trained yesterday but it just flared up again and we just couldn’t afford to risk it.
“She was unable to get up for tonight’s game.
“Wally (Lia Walti) wasn’t 100% right to start, we had a good conversation and we felt it was better to bring her on at a certain time in the game.”
Arsenal also lost influential captain Kim Little just after half-time after she needed to be withdrawn due to injury. Montemurro added “Kim we’re just waiting to see what it exactly is, she felt a bit of tightness in her hamstring.
“Hopefully we’ve got it before it’s gotten worse we will give her a bit of time to figure out what exactly it is.”
The absence of a number of important figures in the side may have contributed to Arsenal coming up second best against City, however, that was not how Montemurro saw it.
“I don’t think it was so much a personnel scenario, it was just City were finding spaces beyond our press and in the opposite pockets and they were hurting us” he continued. “Simply, City were better than us tonight.
“They swung us around, they beat our press, we dropped a little bit deeper in the first half.
“They were better. We’ve only got ourselves to blame, no one else.”
Coming into the match, Arsenal were certainly the most in-form of the two sides, however, they were unable to replicate that form last night. Unfortunately for them, they were faced with a Manchester City side who seem to have finally evolved into a cohesive unit after some below par displays so far this season.
Without the added burden of UEFA Women’s Champions League commitments this season, Montemurro will be striving for domestic glory but after missing out on this edition of the Vitality Women’s FA Cup, The Gunners will have to bounce back quickly. Up next for them is a Bristol City side who have shipped 13 goals in just two games so far this season. The last team that The Robins would want to face is an Arsenal side with a point to prove.