Manchester United head coach Marc Skinner says that his side must take the magic moments which come their way at Arsenal this afternoon.
The Red Devils face The Gunners at the LV Bet Stadium in their latest Barclays FA Women’s Super League match. Skinner’s side have the incentive of cutting the gap between themselves and the league leaders to just two points with a win.
Manchester United defeated Arsenal 1-0 in their last meeting in the quarter-finals of the FA Women’s Continental League Cup a little over a fortnight ago. When speaking ahead of the latest fixture between the two clubs, head coach Skinner said that Arsenal will be looking to perform better and it is up to his side to capitalise on the big moments.
“I’m sure they’ll be in a different space, they’ll want to attack us and do what they do at home,” Skinner said when speaking to FAWSL Full-Time. “We know how difficult it’ll be, they are a great team, we are not hiding that fact. We need to find ways that we can challenge our psyche in these top games, these really important games, take the magic moments.
“That’s what we have got to do and we are going to work hard at doing that. We are going to get our experiences up as we play these games and find ways to win them. We know it is going to be a difficult task but we have got to be prepared for that, if we want to be successful and continue to progress then we have to be ready for that psychological challenge.”
With Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City playing fixtures against each other in the next two games, the next two weekends could shape the top of the Barclays FA Women’s Super League table but Skinner refused to rule other sides out of contention at this stage.
He said “There’s two weeks of great games, the teams in and around the top going against each other but again, Tottenham have some really important games, Reading of course as well. It is so crazy how brilliant this league is becoming because of how really tight it can be in games.
“Playing against each other means that there are points available and points will be dropped in the next two weeks but then don’t take your eyes off the other games, there’s loads of football to be played before we get to the end of this season. Anyone would be a fool to take their eyes of any team that they play in this league. Yes, there are some very important games but you would be foolish to take your eyes of the others as well.”
The Barclays FA Women’s Super League fixture between Arsenal and Manchester United kicks-off at 12.30pm. Tickets remain available and can be purchased by clicking here.