West Ham Women vs Arsenal: can the Gunners win WSL title on the final day?

Arsenal Women end the WSL campaign with a trip to Dagenham to play West Ham. Arsenal enter the weekend a point behind Chelsea, who host Manchester United at home. Manchester United have to win and hope Manchester City lose in order to finish 3rd, in the Champions League places. Arsenal will win the league if they better Chelsea’s result—Arsenal have superior goal difference—but if Chelsea win, which is to be expected, Arsenal will finish second.

Arsenal, though, will have to focus on beating West Ham. After being in last season’s relegation race, West Ham have been comfortably midtable throughout the season, while also reaching the quarter-final of the Conti Cup and semi-final of the FA Cup. It’s been a season of progression for Oli Harder’s side.

Harder’s West Ham set up in a back three. With the on-loan Lisa Evans unavailable, it is likely that West Ham will play with either Claudia Walker or Adrianna Leon upfront as a loan striker, with support from midfield from Yui Hasegawa, Tameka Butt, and the aerially dominant Dagny Brynjarsdóttir, who is West Ham’s top scorer. West Ham like to press, and have the second most successful pressures in the WSL, after Tottenham. It’ll likely be another physical game for Arsenal after the midweek North London Derby.

Arsenal will be without Jordan Nobbs, who suffered a knee injury last weekend, and Rafaelle Souza. With West Ham’s back three, Beth Mead, who has scored in 6 successive WSL games, is likely to get a lot of joy in the wide areas. Mead was dominant when Arsenal met West Ham in the reverse fixture, with her outside to in runs causing consistent threat behind West Ham’s defence.

Predicted lineup (4-2-3-1): 1. Zinsberger; 16. Maritz, 6. Williamson, 3. Wubben-Moy, 7. Catley; 13. Wälti, 10. Little; 9. Mead, 11. Miedema, 19. Foord; 25. Blackstenius
Substitutes: 18. Williams (GK), 28. Cull (GK), 5. Beattie, 12. Maanum, 14. Parris, 15. McCabe, 20. Boye, 23. Iwabuchi, 26. Wienroither

WHAT: West Ham Women vs Arsenal Women, FA WSL

WHERE: Chigwell Construction Stadium, Dagenham

WHEN: Sunday, May 8th 4:00 AM PDT | 7:00 AM EDT | 12:00 PM BST

WATCH: NBC Sports Live Extra (US, streaming), ATA Football (US, streaming), BBC 2 (UK), BBC iPlayer (UK, streaming)