Arsenal Women 4-0 Aston Villa Women
by Layth Yousif
at Meadow Park 

Arsenal breezed into the League Cup final after blitzing a shellshocked Aston Villa with four first half goals including an impressive 40-minute hattrick by Stina Blackstenius.

So rampant were the home side, the Gunners grabbed three goals in the opening 18 minutes to clinch their place in the first domestic showpiece of the season.

In front of 3,507 on a chilly Wednesday evening at Meadow Park, the first two from Blackstenius' treble came in the ninth and 11th minutes to put the home side ahead, to underline utter early dominance. A third goal followed shortly afterwards as Frida Magnum swept home on 18 minutes to all but kill the tie.

Five minutes later Katie McCabe - remarkably fresh from a relentlessly combative performance to help Jonas Eidevall's side to victory in the North London derby in N5 on Sunday - thudded the ball against Anna Leat's bar.

Against a side that contained Arsenal legend Jordan Nobbs, as well as Lionesses Euro 2022 winner Rachel Daly, Blackstenius, assisted by Lotte Wubben-Moy, grabbed her third with five minutes still remaining of an opening 45 minutes Villa would have liked to forget. Not least because Carla Ward’s underwhelming side could only muster a single shot over the entire 90 minutes, and who admitted afterwards the first half was "horribly disappointing".

The Gunners continued to dominate the second half though understandably, perhaps not with as much intensity as prior to the break, given that the game was won, and the fact that Eidevall's side face a crunch WSL clash at Stamford Bridge a week on Friday. 

Speaking after the match, boss Jonas Eidevall added: "We won comfortably in the end, I still don't think this was our best performance. We can do better than this."

As for the League Cup however, six times winners and current holders Arsenal will be savouring the prospect of the final, to be played at Wolves on Sunday, March 31 – against the winner of Thursday's tie between Manchester City and Chelsea.