Alessia Russo: Arsenal have what it takes to win more trophies | OneFootball

Arsenal celebrating a goal (Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP) (Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Arsenal have scored nine goals in their first two Women’s Super League matches – and Alessia Russo says they have what it takes to continue that kind of form and win the title.

The England striker grabbed two late goals in the Gunners’ 5-1 win over West Ham United on Friday night, and said afterwards that their squad depth could be a major factor in deciding the trophy winners this season.

“I think we have an amazing squad, you can see starters, people who come on, people who finish the game, our whole squad is massive, and anyone is ready to step up for their moment, and that’s really important,” Russo told the Arsenal website after the match.

“That’s what you need to win titles, win trophies. We’ve got that, and we just need to keep pushing on.”

Alessia Russo: We want to carry on this form

Frida Maanum scored Arsenal’s first, and she was replaced by Stina Blackstenius at half-time – with the Swede scoring the third.

New record signing Olivia Smith came on for Beth Mead just after the hour mark, and the Canadian won the penalty that gave Russo her second goal of the evening.

It supports the argument that the forwards, as Russo said, are creating a great understanding as a group – regardless of who’s on the pitch.

“We’ve been working hard in training as a unit. We want to keep building connections and relationships with each other, and bring out each other’s strengths. It was really positive and now we’ve got to keep going.”

The 5-1 win, coming back from a goal down, followed a similar pattern to their 4-1 opening-day victory over London City Lionesses – but Russo said that conceding the early goal once again did not worry them too much.

“We spoke a lot in pre-season about being consistent, and that’s what we want to do. We’ve started really well, we want to keep pushing on, it’s a long season, we all know that. We want to carry on this form.”

She added: “You saw it last season, how we can win in lots of different ways, and it doesn’t affect us. We know that we have the quality, we know that we’ll get the chances, and the bounce-back after we conceded the first goal tonight was really positive.”

Arsenal’s next WSL is on Sunday, 21st September, when they travel to Leigh Sports Village to face Manchester United.