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85 min: Robinson tries to spring a break after Everton deal with the corner but her threatening run is stopped by a smart Cooney-Cross intervention.
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84 min: Russo with a driving run into the box! The tight angle was against her and the ball is bundled out for an Arsenal corner.
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83 min: Williamson’s first touch, an accurate pass to Fox. Arsenal work the ball towards the Everton goal – McCabe can’t find a ball through the Everton defence, however. An Arsenal throw.
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82 min: Arsenal crowd around the Everton box on their left, but Foord gives away a free-kick. Scrappy stuff in the second half.
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Leah Williamson returns
The England captain is on for the final 10 minutes, as she replaces Steph Catley! These are the first minutes Leah Williamson has played since the Euro 2025 final.
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79 min: Borbe getting a bit of treatment on her ankle, she fell slightly awkwardly catching that free-kick. Brian Sørensen takes the chance to rev up his players for a final push.
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77 min: Payne has the ball on the Everton left; doesn’t have a lot of help but draws a foul from Wubben-Moy. A free-kick which will be swung into the Arsenal box… Borbe just about collects it! That was moving in the air.
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75 min: A long Everton pass gives Kitagawa too much to do, she can’t keep it in play. Vignolla is replaced by Katie Robinson as the home side make a fourth change.
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74 min: Wubben-Moy clears a ball into the box; Russo comes deep to pick it up. Everton won’t mind seeing her inside her own half. But not Arsenal do build a promising attack. Ruby Mace – who else? – clears it.
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72 min: Everton have a spell of possession, the substitutions seemingly working a touch better for them than the visitors early on. Vignola is getting plenty of the ball.
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70 min: Holmgaard wins the ball in midfield but once again it goes backwards for Everton. It’s worked forwards well but Vignola’s ball into the box is easily gathered by Borbe.
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Updated at 08.34 EST
68 min: Both sides giving the ball away as the game settles (or unsettles) into a sloppy passage of play. Everton’s Kitagawa chases down a long ball but Fox gets their first and clears.
Renée Slegers watches on from the touchline. Photograph: Alex Burstow/Arsenal FC/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 08.34 EST
66 min: Arsenal are sweeping the ball around smoothly but, unlike the start of the first half, are yet to really show any cutting edge.
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64 min: Emily Fox is too cunning for Payne as Everton try to search for an opening – she guides the ball back to her goalkeeper on the edge of the area. Arsenal back with the ball.
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62 min: Little goes off, alongside Mead, as Arsenal make some subs. Blackstenius and Olivia Smith come on – so that’s not bad. Smith was superb against Liverpool in her last WSL game.
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60 min: Caldentey fires in a shot after the short corner but Brosnan is equal to it. Mead has a shot from way out, but it was, well, let’s say optimistic.
Especially because, as Tom Garry tells me in a much-needed sunshine update: “Everton fans will be glad to know the sun is now below the stand now, so Brosnan can see everything.”
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Updated at 08.25 EST
57 min: Everton clear, but the red and white wave is soon back upon them, switching play. A 10th Arsenal corner. Can they make one count?
Not before Everton make a triple change: Snoeijs, Holmgaard and Van Gool all come on.
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56 min: Russo races into space and gets a shot away – Mace blocks smartly and puts it behind. Again. Arsenal’s ninth corner already.
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55 min: Cooney-Cross delivers an incisive pass to Mead, but her path is blocked. Everton’s defence looking a bit more solid at the start of this half, but of course they will need more than that at some stage.
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53 min: McCabe gets in behind and slips in a fine pass, Russo is running across the goal and gets a close-range shot on target, but Brosnan is firmly behind it.
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52 min: Everton deal with the corner and try to play the ball around in defence but they’re struggling a bit with Arsenal’s press. The visitors soon have the ball back. Mead wins a free-kick, taken quickly.
Lotte Wubben-Moy of Arsenal runs with the ball. Photograph: Charlotte Tattersall/WSL/WSL Football/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 08.18 EST
50 min: Everton have a spell of possession but can’t find a route to a chance, Arsenal win the ball back, Foord drives into the box and Mace manages to get it out for a corner.
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48 min: Sørensen, earpod firmly in, is offering plenty of loud instructions. Slegers looks more considered as she gives some chewing gum a thorough going over in the style of a former Manchester United men’s manager.
On the pitch, Brosnan gets a firm fist away on an Arsenal cross. Everton look to mount an attack.
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Updated at 08.13 EST
46 min: Everton work their way to Arsenal’s goal and Ornella Vignola has a shot which goes straight at Borbe. Not a direct threat but mild encouragement for the hosts.
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The second half kicks off
Everton, who need to try to match Arsenal’s intensity, get the second half rolling.
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Thanks for the excellent mid-game analysis, Tom. Like a true Pro, I missed Tom’s pre-kick-off missive, which was thus: “The Arsenal keeper Anneke Borbe has the sun shining directly into her eyeline in this first half. Tricky.”
Well, Everton did score from their only shot on target (not that Borbe could do much about that pearler). But does this mean it’s disadvantage Courtney Brosnan in the second half?? Everton need some cloud cover, along with defensive improvements.
ShareTom Garry
It is hard to fathom how Arsenal only have a one-goal advantage, given the pressure they have applied on the Everton penalty area for large chunks of that first half. At times, the rare moments where that pressure eased off seemed only to arise when there were physios called on, to treat players from both sides.
There were very few other moments of respite, for Everton’s backline. Kim Little and Mariona Caldentey are pulling a lot of strings in the middle. As soon as Everton equalised, Brian Sørensen rushed immediately to try and give some tactical instructions to his players but they are still struggling to get the ball off this dynamic Arsenal team, and the home fans have been relatively quiet as a result.
The away supporters have been singing through their repertoire about being European champions. They’re going second in the table as it stands.
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Some half-time reading: Tom Garry has analysed Liverpool’s winless WSL start. West Ham on Sunday feels massive.
No wins, no clean sheets and – on Thursday night – no shots on target. It has been a horrible first half of the WSL season for Liverpool and, while the gaze of the world’s football media has been drawn towards the future of “the Egyptian King”, Mo Salah, on Merseyside, the women’s team look increasingly in danger of slipping down the pyramid.
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Half-time: Everton 1-2 Arsenal
Four-and-a-half crazy minutes brought us three goals. Not sure how Arsenal didn’t score in some of the other 40+ minutes, but there we are – a terrifically entertaining half of action.
Kyra Cooney-Cross in action with Toni Payne. Photograph: Jason Cairnduff/Action Images/ReutersShare
Updated at 07.57 EST
45+6 min: Gago plays a neat layoff to Momiki but Arsenal’s defence is firm and Everton are forced to go backwards. A ball over the top and Gago is just offside.
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45+4 min: Mace holds off the busy Foord inside the box and Everton clear. A little bit of respite at the end of the half. Will either side get one more chance?
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Updated at 07.50 EST
45+3 min: Brosnan boots the ball long – perhaps not particularly encouraged by her defenders’ passing game – and the ball is well worked to Payne on the right. She briefly looks in behind! But the offside flag goes up.
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Updated at 07.51 EST
45+1 min: Everton almost give the ball away to Mead inside the box! It goes out for a corner but that was very risky. We’re getting seven additional minutes in this half thanks to a few stoppages earlier.
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Updated at 07.46 EST
44 min: Arsenal sweeping the ball from left to right, searching for gaps in the Everton defence. Mead’s ball into the box is booted away by Brosnan.
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Updated at 07.45 EST
42 min: Foord crosses the ball into the box and Russo heads into the side netting – it was just a touch to high to be fair; she couldn’t quite get the right angle.
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40 min: Emily Fox and Kim Little combine excellently on the right, zipping the ball around, but Caldentey can’t quite collect a pass inside the area.
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39 min: Mead’s corner is put behind by Everton, she gets another go and it’s a more dangerous cross – right into the mixer, but the hosts react quickest and get it away.
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