Preview: Everton v Arsenal Women

With the Barclays Women's Super League season heading into its final stages, next up for our Gunners is a trip to Merseyside to face Everton.

Victory on Sunday would be our 16th straight win over the Toffees in the league, as we look to keep the pressure on Manchester City and Chelsea at the top of the table.

Last time around

The Toffees proved to be a stern test in our earlier meeting this season but two first-half goals secured the three points at Meadow Park.

Caitlin Foord's tap-in opened the scoring, but the visitors quickly equalised through Katja Snoeijs. However, a searching cross from Lia Walti found Beth Mead in the box, who headed home to restore our lead.

Our opposition

Everton looks dejected after the team's defeat in the Barclays Women's Super League to Manchester United

After suffering their worst-ever start to a WSL campaign, picking up just one point from their opening six games at home, Everton rallied with a win over West Ham, a draw in the Merseyside derby and a victory over Brighton & Hove Albion last time out.

Brian Sorensen's side are level on points with the eighth-place Seagulls and still in touching distance of Tottenham Hotspur, but as it stands, the chances of matching last season's midtable finish are slim.

Facts and stats

Everton have not beaten us in the Women's Super League since our very first meeting in July 2011. We have won 18 of our 19 last fixtures with the Toffees
Beth Mead has scored four times in her last two league appearances. She remains the only English player to bag back-to-back braces in the WSL, previously doing the same for Sunderland in 2015 (vs. Chelsea and Bristol City)
Meanwhile, Vivianne Miedema has scored seven goals in ten WSL appearances against Everton
We've won our last two WSL games whilst also keeping a clean sheet. Another consecutive clean sheet would be our longest streak this season.
Heather Payne has won more duels (85), completed the most dribbles (20) and played the most passes into the opposition’s box (49) than any other Everton player this season

What the managers say

Eidevall on Everton: "It's for us to focus on what we can control. We still need to make the most out of the three games that we have left. That gives us a good foundation for next season."

Sorensen on us: "Last time around, we put in a good performance. It's a big test for us, but if we get our game plan right and make sure we stay in the game, especially in the first half, I think we can maybe cause some trouble."

Team news

After missing out on last weekend's Emirates Stadium clash with Leicester City, Lotte Wubben-Moy and Kyra Cooney-Cross are both said to be progressing "positively."

"They have two more training sessions but they’re very much two players that I’m talking about here being able to be in contention for the squad here on Sunday," said Eidevall.

Lia Walti, Amanda Ilestedt, Lina Hurtig and Kaylan Marckese are all unavailable for the weekend.