Arsenal 4-3 West Ham United women's team
Barclays Women's Super League, Meadow Park, Sunday 2 March 2025, 5.30pm GMT
Despite a valiant display, West Ham United women’s team were harshly defeated 4-3 by Arsenal in the Barclays Women’s Super League after the Gunners pulled off a come-from-behind victory.
The Hammers had a 2-1 lead at half-time after Amber Tysiak netted a first-half brace - guiding Viviane Asseyi’s corner into the net with a superb header before stabbing the ball home from close range to put the visitors into dreamland after 12 minutes - but Chloe Kelly netted at the back post moments before the break to halve the deficit.
The second period was a rollercoaster in itself. Although Shekiera Martinez restored the Irons’ two-goal advantage just after half-time, three goals in the space of six minutes from Katie McCabe, Leah Williamson and a Mariona Caldentey penalty put the Gunners into the lead just after the hour mark.
Both Anouk Denton and Eva Nyström came so close to scoring in the dying stages, but the women’s team could not conjure up an equaliser in the London derby. However, Skinner will no doubt be delighted with the intensity and quality her side displayed throughout large parts of the contest.
The West Ham manager welcomed Tysiak back into her starting XI following her three-game suspension, and the defender was called upon 18 seconds after the referee's first whistle to block Alessia Russo’s goalbound effort from inside the box.
And while she came to the Hammers’ rescue at one end, the Belgium international was then on target at the other seven minutes later. After Daphne van Domselaar made a smart stop to deny Viviane Asseyi, the attacker whipped in an inswinging corner that Tysiak met with brilliant athleticism, and her header powered the visitors into the lead.
Skinner’s side deserved their goal, pressing the Gunners every time a player in red and white touched the ball, and they darted forward once more - this time Arsenal defender Katie McCabe provided a last-ditch clearance to stop Martinez’s cross reaching Seraina Piubel on the goal line.
But from the resulting corner, the Hammers made it two. It was Tysiak who was on target again as she scrambled the ball home from close-range after van Domselaar made an instinctive save to deny Oona Siren’s header. Meadow Park was stunned - and the Hammers deserved it.
The home side were never going to rest on their laurels, though, and should have halved the deficit soon after Tysiak’s second when Russo spurned a one-on-one opportunity, scuffing her effort wide of Kinga Szemik’s goal.
The Poland international had to be alert in the minutes that followed as she made a smart save to deny Kelly before Camila Sáez blocked Russo’s close-range strike with a terrific challenge.
A breathless first half wouldn’t die down, and Arsenal almost found a route back into the game ten minutes before the break, as Caldentey clipped the outside post with a swerving strike from outside the area. Frida Maanum then tried to curl the ball home inside the box, but Szemik was there to parry it away.
However, the hosts’ pressure eventually told just before half-time as Maanum’s inswinging cross from the left was volleyed into the roof of the net by Kelly, who ghosted in at the back post.
Renée Slegers wasted no time in turning to the bench as she sent on Stina Blackstenius in place of Maanum at the break, and the substitute thought she had dragged her side level within two minutes of the second half, but after her sweeping finish into the bottom-left corner, linesman Jon Sears was quick to raise his flag for offside.
Although the second period was only five minutes old, it was clear West Ham were going to find joy on the break with the gaps they were able to plug in midfield, and when Russo’s misplaced pass fell straight to Hanshaw, Skinner’s side didn’t look back.
The Austria international surged forward, gliding through the Gunners backline, before releasing Martinez, who cut inside with quality and then fired the ball home at the near post to restore the Hammers’ two-goal lead.
However, the tide turned. Five minutes after Irons’ No19’s goal, Arsenal found a second as McCabe’s volleyed effort at the byline snuck into the near corner of the net.
This proved to be the first of two goals in as many minutes as Williamson rose highest from a corner to level proceedings, with her header agonisingly creeping over the line after hitting the underside of the bar.
Slegers’ side had their tails up and marauded forward again, and they awarded a penalty on the turn of the hour when Kirsty Smith handled the ball in the box. Caldentey was trusted from the spot, and she converted from 12 yards, despite Szemik getting a strong hand to the ball.
After a manic six minutes, Skinner turned to Denton, Katrina Gorry and Zadorsky to help get the Hammers back in the game, and while chances were at a premium for the visitors in the second period, former Gunner Denton almost levelled in the final minute with a blistering strike from the edge of the box, but van Domselaar tipped over.
The resulting corner then led to a brilliant chance to grab an equaliser with centre-back Nyström rising highest from Smith’s delivery, but her header was tipped onto the bar by van Domselaar.
Arsenal: Van Domselaar, Fox (Ilestedt 85), Williamson, Catley, Caldentey, Little © (Cooney-Cross 55), McCabe, Maanum (Blackstenius 46), Wälti (Foord 55), Kelly (Mead 85), Russo
Subs not used: Zinsberger, Reid, Nighswonger, Pelova
Goals: Kelly 44, McCabe 56, Williamson 58, Caldentey (pen) 62
Booked: Kelly
West Ham United: Szemik, Smith, Nyström, Tysiak, Sáez (Denton 64), Hanshaw (Zadorsky 64), Siren, Brynjarsdóttir (Gorry 64), Martinez (Ueki 74), Asseyi ©, Piubel (Paví 87)
Subs not used: M.Walsh (GK), Mengwen, Bergman Lundin, Harries
Goals: Tysiak 7, 12, Martinez 51
Booked: Asseyi
Referee: Ade Soneye
Attendance: 3,621
Skinner: We gave Arsenal a run for their money
Rehanne Skinner admitted her side are disappointed after their 4-3 defeat to Arsenal, but is incredibly proud of the efforts of her players at Meadow Park.
The Hammers flew to a 3-1 advantage courtesy of a first-half brace from Amber Tysiak and a stunning counter-attack goal from Shekiera Martinez, which came either side of a Chloe Kelly 44th-minute volley.
But three goals in six second-half minutes from the home side proved costly for the Irons, as Arsenal clinched the three points on Sunday evening.
Skinner was delighted to see Tysiak among the goals in her return to the starting XI, and will take plenty of positives from her side’s performance into their WSL clash at home to Manchester City on Wednesday evening.
We gave Arsenal a real scare.
We're disappointed to be in the position that we’re in and to have not seen the game through. I thought we did some fantastic defensive work.
Some of our goals were just superb from attacking set-plays. I thought we capitalised and punished them in areas we felt we could, but we just didn't manage a spell in the game, and our clearances weren't quite good enough, unfortunately, to give us a bit of breathing space.
We never give up on anything, and our performances are just continuing to improve and improve. We've given them a real scare today and given them a run for their money, and that's what we want to do.
This performance will stand us in good stead.
These games matter to us. We want to get as many points out of them as we can, and we don't take them lightly. So we're disappointed with the result.
Our performances are continuing to grow. We're more aggressive, we're pressing higher, we're creating more chances and scoring more goals. That's going to stand us in good stead for the remainder of the season.
It was great to capitalise on set pieces and for Amber to get her goals.
In and around the box, we probably haven’t been as clinical as we'd like to be, and actually, in attacking set plays, we’ve created really good opportunities over the course of the season. But today we made sure we punished them for that, and it was fantastic for Amber to get two goals as well. I think there's definitely positives to take out of it.
I’m proud of the attacking threat we showed.
I said to them [the players]: ‘I know it hurts’. There's not going to be anything I can really say when we've given everything that we have and we were 3-1 up. When you're managing a team that have got players that are so creative that they have, it can be really challenging. But we know that we can be better in those moments.
I'm proud of the fact that we're scoring goals, we're creating more chances, we're sticking to the gameplan of being more aggressive, and that is creating problems.
It was great for a lot of the squad to get minutes.
Lots of people have had opportunities to play, and we've got people back from the international break, which has taken its toll on a lot of people with the amount of travel and gametime [they’ve had]. Mini [Katrina Gorry] was playing in the early hours of Thursday morning in the USA and then travelled back, and didn't get back until Friday.
That's out of the way now. They'll settle in over the course of the next couple of days and be fully available for Wednesday.
Tysiak: We've shown we're building something really positive
Defender Amber Tysiak believes there was plenty to be positive about despite losing 4-3 against Arsenal in the Barclays Women’s Super League at Meadow Park.
Two first-half goals from the 25-year-old gave the Hammers a stranglehold on the contest before Chloe Kelly halved the deficit just before half-time.
However, after Shekiera Martinez restored our two-goal advantage after 51 minutes, Renée Slegers’ side mounted a big response, and three goals in a chaotic six minutes from Katie McCabe, Leah Williamson and Mariona Caldentey did the damage for the hosts in the London derby.
Tysiak believes that the overall display from the team provides reason to be optimistic going forward.
“I think our team performance was brilliant today,” said Tysiak.
“Unfortunately, we have no points today, but I think there are a lot of positives to take home.
“We've been training a lot on set-pieces, and I think we're good at set-pieces. I'm just happy to score these goals, but I think also the [quality of] deliveries were really, really good.
“Every game in this league, you have to start fast, and I think we did really well today.
“I think we came in front 3-1, so then it's unfortunate that we don't have any points out of this game because the pressure was, at one point, really, really high. I think ahead of Wednesday, we showed today that we can compete against the better teams in the league, so that's a positive.
“We were so close [to an equaliser], and I still think it was so close to going over the line, but it was a great block from them too.
“I think also in previous weeks we've shown that we're building something really positive, and today, after the international break, we showed that we are here and we can compete with the better teams in the league.”
