After a shock Champions League elimination and a home defeat in front of a record Women’s Super League crowd, there are now signs of life in Arsenal’s rebuild.
The Gunners showed their intentions over the summer with several big-name signings after slipping behind Manchester United in the race to catch Chelsea last season.
Primary among these was Alessia Russo, the England striker recruited from United just before the World Cup following a long saga and months of speculation over her contract situation.
Now, after back-to-back WSL wins, Jonas Eidevall’s side face Manchester City this weekend in the biggest test so far of their title credentials.
As well as Russo, Arsenal also brought in Spanish World Cup winner Laia Codina, Australian midfielder Kyra Cooney-Cross, Sweden centre-back Amanda Ilestedt and Canada forward Cloe Lacasse as Eidevall was heavily backed in the transfer market.
Yet they stumbled out of the blocks, being knocked out in Champions League qualifying on penalties by Paris FC.
The magnitude of that upset has been slightly put into perspective by Paris subsequently causing an even greater upset – eliminating last year’s runners-up Wolfsburg to qualify for the group stage.
But an early exit from Europe certainly was not in the plans of Eidevall, Russo or anyone else at Arsenal.
High hopes of trophy success were further dented in front of a WSL record crowd of 54,115 at Emirates Stadium last month, when Miri Taylor’s goal was enough to earn Liverpool a 1-0 victory.
Eidevall said his side have been victims of the crunched post-World Cup schedule, which saw the WSL season start only 42 days after the final in Sydney, while Arsenal’s Champions League qualifier was just 17 days later.
After losing their league opener, Eidevall said Arsenal had only had 10 training sessions in four months with all players available, adding: “We need to invest time in relationships.”