Arsenal women weekly news & gossip round up 8 May 2026 | OneFootball

Alessia Russo and Renee Slegers are up for major WSL awards, while Katie McCabe, Naomi Williams and Georgia Stanway all feature in a busy week.

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Arsenal women’s 1-1 draw with Brighton in midweek ensured Manchester City won the WSL title this season for the first time in a decade.

Coming just a few days after the crushing blow of losing to Lyon in the Champions League semi-final, it was perhaps not surprising that the team were under par, but when the dust settles, Renee Slegers and her players will look back at their slow start as the reason this year’s title got away from them.

Substantial wins against London City Lionesses and West Ham in the opening weeks were followed by draws with Manchester United and Aston Villa, and then defeat to City and they were just not able to claw back the ground.

Arsenal women – news

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Alessia Russo has been nominated for the WSL Player of the Season award after a campaign in which she has scored nine goals and provided five assists in 19 league games, with three still to play.

She is up against Kerstin Casparij (Manchester City), Kirsty Hanson (Aston Villa), Olivia Holdt (Tottenham Hotspur), Ruby Mace (Everton), Jess Park (Manchester United), Khadija Shaw (Manchester City) and Alyssa Thompson (Chelsea).

Slegers has also been nominated for WSL Manager of the Season, alongside Andrée Jeglertz, who has taken City to the title, and Martin Ho, who has delivered a fifth-place finish for Tottenham Hotspur.

That is not the end of the nominations, either, with both Daphne van Domselaar and Anneke Borbe up for Save of the Season.

Katie McCabe, meanwhile, has been named Arsenal’s Player of the Month for April in her penultimate month with the club. McCabe is set to leave this summer when her contract expires and is being wooed by City.

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If you missed it earlier this week, Naomi Williams has also confirmed she is set to leave.

Arsenal women – injury updates

It was revealed this week that Beth Mead missed two Arsenal games as she spent time with her partner, Vivianne Miedema, and Miedema’s mother, who has cancer and was seriously ill. Mead returned as a sub in the game against Brighton on Wednesday.

Arsenal women – rumours

According to our information, Arsenal women will go on tour this summer. We do not yet know where.

Also according an incredibly well-placed source, Georgia Stanway is definitely joining Arsenal this summer when her contract with Bayern Munich expires.

Arsenal women – youth

A number of Arsenal Under-17s are currently at the Euros with England, and you can how they have been doing here.

Arsenal women – up next

Arsenal women travel to Villa Park to face Aston Villa in the WSL on Saturday, 9 May with a 12pm kick-off. That is followed by the final home game at the Emirates, against Everton on 13 May (7pm) in the penultimate match of the season.