Sunderland Women will look to the wings in their revenge bid against champions Arsenal at Hetton's Eppleton CW ground tomorrow.
The
Gunners, who completed a clean sweep of titles last season, have made a perfect start to the season with six wins out of six, including
last Sunday's 5-1 home win against the Wearsiders. But Sunderland boss Mick Mulhern - whose side are second in the Premier League
behind Chelsea - believes his side can push the visitors much closer tomorrow.
"In some ways the final result was harsh on us," he said. "We took the lead and caused them problems early on. But we had a little dip in which time they scored twice and from there we were chasing the game".
"In the second half there were a couple of bad decisions from the officials which led to goals and that killed the game off. But tomorrow I want is to start strong again and take the game to them. Our midfield can cause problems for any team. Kelly McDougall and Jordan Nobbs have been top class in the middle and I'll be looking to them to get the ball spread wide."
"Demi Stokes and Lucy Staniforth
were impressive on the wings against Arsenal and gave them plenty to think about. Again, I'll be looking to them to press forward
and try to put Arsenal on the back foot."
That of course, is a tough task against an Arsenal side who have won the last six league titles, and who also beat Sunderland 2-1 in last season's FA Cup final, when the Wearsiders were still in the Northern Division. Arsenal went 108 games unbeaten before a defeat to title rivals Everton last season, but are unbeaten since as they continue to dominate the domestic scene. They have a vast advantage in experience over Sunderland too. Last week's line-ups saw Arsenal's average age come in at almost 26, with Sunderland's only just over 19. This season, the Gunners are already third, one point behind Sunderland, but with six games in hand. Last week's win against Sunderland came courtesy of two goals from Scottland stars Julie Fleeting and Kim Little, and one from England international Rachel Yankey.
"Arsenal are clinical up front," admitted Mulhern. "You just can't afford to give them chances because they have the players to punish you. Everyone knows they have built an extremely powerful squad, and to get anything from a game against them would be a massive bonus. But that's the challenge we face and we are looking forward to it."
Courtesy of Neil Watson, Sports Editor, Sunderland Echo.