Russo's flying form is exactly what Arsenal's title charge needs

Alessia Russo, the England sensation, has scored four times in five matches. Her additional efforts to find the net could help Arsenal win the Women’s Super League trophy.

Jonas Eidevall, the Arsenal manager, believes that Alessia Russo has the potential to be a 20-goal scorer and her recent form backs up his claim.
The Arsenal manager said “Yes” when he was questioned last month if Alessia Russo could score 20 goals in a season.

The England ace scored her 10th goal of the season on Sunday, a decisive strike against Tottenham that helped Arsenal avenge their historic loss to their local rivals in December and keep up with Chelsea, the Women’s Super League frontrunners.

Russo may find it hard to reach 20 goals this season as Arsenal only have 12 games left at most. But the four goals she has scored in her last five games for club and country show that she is on track to achieve Eidevall’s goal.

Arsenal could end the season on a high note if they can get more goals from their star recruit before it’s too late. The Gunners have had a shaky season, but they still have a shot at winning the Continental Cup and the WSL title, which would be a surprise.

Russo is not your typical No.9

Russo’s 10 goals in 22 games this season may seem disappointing for a striker who was the target of a record-breaking offer last January. But Arsenal’s attempt to sign her from Manchester United with a huge sum six months before they got her for free shows how much Eidevall trusts her talent and what she can offer right now.

The England ace has not been a consistent scorer. That is because she is not a typical goal-hanger, a natural finisher who takes chances in and near the goal. Russo prefers to get involved in the play and contributes a lot to the creation of chances with her skill on the ball, smart movement, and how that creates space for others.

Developing as a goal-scorer

Arsenal and Russo, like any team that aims for trophies, need their No.9 to score their fair share of goals. “As a No.9, scoring goals is one of your main duties for the team,” Eidevall said on Sunday. “Our forwards are point makers, they need to add points. That applies to our No.9, our 10, and our two wide forwards. That will always be the case.”

That’s why Russo needs to work on her goal-scoring skills, too. “We talked about that in the last period before the international break, that’s something to get better at,” the Arsenal manager confessed. “I think she was doing that very, very well today and she got her reward as well. It seems like an easy goal to score, but it’s a goal you can’t score if you’re not in that spot.”

Deadly duo

Russo has been helped by Mead’s contribution in recent weeks, a winger who can score goals and cut inside to be a threat in the box, thanks to her own experience as a No.9. Against Spurs, it was Mead who ran into the box to receive Kim Little’s brilliant pass before it bounced to Russo. When the forward scored the first goal against Austria for England last month, it was Mead’s rebound that she followed up to score.
“Less and I have been putting in a lot of work on and off the pitch for the club,” Mead said to the media after the 7-2 victory for the Lionesses. “I think we’re getting to know each other much better on the pitch. I like crossing balls and I think Less is starting to learn to try and get on them. She was in the right spot at the right moment tonight. Less was there and she understands those kinds of balls and it’s good to improve our relationship for the club and the country.”
Mead has just returned from an ACL injury that kept her out for most of a year so she is still getting back to her best after being away for so long, but as the duo spend more time together on the pitch, she could be the ideal partner for Russo for the club and the country.

Russo producing needed results

Russo and Arsenal are seeing the results of their extra work to boost her goal-scoring potential, as the recent games have demonstrated. It will take a while for the 25-year-old to reach the level that Eidevall expects from her, but if they keep making strides like this, it can benefit them short and long run.
The Gunners have struggled to score this season. No team in the WSL is falling short of their expected goals by a larger margin, with Arsenal also having the fifth-lowest shot-conversion rate in the league. If they can keep improving the system around Russo, if she can enhance her positioning and if she and her colleagues can keep developing their chemistry on the pitch, they can get more and more out of the England star’s talent as a goal-scorer and it can help the whole team to perform better in the final third.

If Arsenal want to finish this season with trophies, whether it is keeping the Conti Cup, claiming the WSL for the first time in five years or even both, they have to get better at finding the net. The glimpses Russo has shown in improving her game in the final third will be encouraging, then, and can surely give the Gunners a cause for hope as the title race gets ready for its climax.