How could Arsenal women’s 2024/25 calendar shape up? | OneFootball

Arsenal’s women’s team is set to embark on a demanding 2024/25 season, with a packed schedule of up to 44 games across four competitions.

The team will kick off their pre-season preparations with a tour of the USA, where they will play two friendly matches. While players participating in the Olympics will miss the tour, they are expected to rejoin the squad in time for the crucial Champions League qualifiers.

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND – APRIL 28: Alessia Russo of Arsenal celebrates scoring her team’s first goal with teammates during the Barclays Women´s Super League match between Everton FC and Arsenal FC at Walton Hall Park on April 28, 2024 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Ben Roberts Photo/Getty Images)

Arsenal will start their 2024/25 season with a pre-season tour to the USA and will play two friendlies. Players competing at the Olympics are expected to get a rest before joining up the squad, but everybody else should join the USA tour.

Here is how the season could map out:

The club will play a maximum of 44 games in 2024/25 spread over four different competitions: the UEFA Women Champions League, Barclays Women Super League, FA Women’s Cup, Continental Tyres Cup. The club is guaranteed a minimum of 26 games: 22 Leagues games, two Champions League games, one FA Women’s Cup game and one Continental Cup game.

This is not the definitive schedule as the FA has not published anything yet.

The only definitive dates are the UEFA ones.

Still, we can have a pretty good guess how the season will pan out. We know that the Champions League qualifiers will be one of the keys to the season. Should Arsenal qualify for the Qualifiers second round, we already know that the WSL season opener will be sandwiched between the home and away WCL game.

WOLVERHAMPTON, ENGLAND – MARCH 31: Arsenal players celebrate with the trophy after the FA Women’s Continental Tyres League Cup Final match between Arsenal and Chelsea at Molineux on March 31, 2024 in Wolverhampton, England. (Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images)

As always, the Continental Cup should be a problem for teams qualifying for the Champions League group stage, and the expectation is those team will get a bye to the quarter finals. This is obviously very unfair as some teams will just need to win two games to reach the final.

There will be a month-long winter break and then the second half of the season, where cup games start to disrupt the schedule and there is a pile-up, or it can be the opposite. Basically, on one end of the spectrum, you only play League games from January to May, so that’s 11 games plus one FA Cup round. And if you are successful in all competitions, that is 23 games to be played in the second half of the season.

So, up to 21 games in the first half of the season and up to 23 in the second half makes a total of a maximum of 44 games and a minimum of 26.

This means Arsenal will need a full squad of 25 players to be able to compete in four competitions. With the Amanda Ilestedt pregnancy, Arsenal actually can add a 26th player as they did at the end of last season when Michelle Agyemang was registered after her Watford loan had ended. Load management will be key to a successful season as well as avoiding long term injuries.

Hopefully, Arsenal can hit the ground running this season with no post Olympics blues and get to the Champions League group stage to kick start a successful League campaign and come close to the title in 2024/25.