Reading Women will be hoping to make amends when they face Arsenal Women on Sunday after they were thrashed by the Gunners on the opening day of the season.
The Royals suffered a heavy setback at the start of the 2020/21 Women’s Super League campaign at the hands of the Gunners.
Jill Roord bagged a hat-trick, while fellow Netherlands international and potent goal scorer Vivianne Miedema added two and Kim Little the other, and despite a consolation goal from former Arsenal player Danielle Carter, Reading were beaten 6-1.
Kelly Chambers’ Reading side have currently played the most matches of any side in the league, but sit in sixth after just three wins in their opening 11 games.Meanwhile, Joe Montemurro’s Arsenal side are pushing to win the title again having lost their crown to Chelsea last season.
But they have also made a stuttering start to the season which has seen them suffer costly defeats to fellow title rivals Manchester City and Manchester United.
They were also dealt a cruel blow against current title holders Chelsea when a 90th minute Carlotte Wubben-Moy own goal cost them two points after Beth Mead had put them ahead just five minutes prior to the equaliser.
The north London side are now a point behind Chelsea after the Blues thumped Reading last weekend, and also four points behind league leaders Manchester United.
Royals boss Chambers believes that her side made have lost some crucial momentum due to the Christmas break.
“If you look at the performances before Christmas, you wonder whether the break came at the wrong time for us,” said Chambers.
“We had a lot of momentum from great performances prior to that, and we had just started to turn those performances into results too.
“This season’s been a real transitional one in terms of the amount of players that exited the club and the amount we brought in.
“It’s taken us this long, minus the Chelsea game, to get where we wanted to be, so obviously the Chelsea result is a setback. Prior to that, we have been in a good place performance wise.
“We need to make sure we work hard on turning things around ahead of next week.”
