‘We got 28,000 to the Emirates in pre-season – that is where the women’s game is going’
Arsenal’s England forward Beth Mead still surprised at being recognised in street, she tells Alistair Tweedale
Beth Mead knows she will have to get used to it eventually, but she is still coming to terms with the recognition that comes with the rapidly rising profile of women’s football. “You still get taken aback by it,” she tells The Sunday Telegraph. “I went to a cafe the other day and a man came up to me and said, ‘You’re that Beth Mead that plays on the wing for England, aren’t you?’ There’s a lot more recognition now.”
The Arsenal and England forward anticipates further growth with the start of a new Women’s Super League campaign in which some matches will be hosted at a number of high-profile Premier League grounds.
“It’s amazing to have games at the big stadiums and that the men’s teams are backing the women’s teams,” she says. “It is more personal at Boreham Wood [where Arsenal play their home games], but we’ve done that for a long time and this is a chance to get bigger numbers to games. We got 28,000 to the Emirates in pre-season – that’s where the women’s game is going.”
Mead says the priority is to retain the title Arsenal won last season – rather than focus on the Champions League – and the return to fitness of key player Jordan Nobbs could be crucial after she ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament last November.
Nobbs says she is “confident” Arsenal can win the league again.
“We’ve added to our squad,” she says. “Why would anyone not be confident when they’ve done it last year?”
That level of expectation is a far cry from the other side of north London, where Tottenham are entering their first season in the WSL. Many of their players have only this year given up jobs to go full-time as footballers and just two weeks ago Spurs lost 6-0 to Arsenal in a pre-season friendly. However, Mead is excited about the development of a rivalry between two teams who will meet at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in November.
“It’s nice to have a derby,” she says. “The pre-season game wasn’t the friendliest. We came out on top and we’ll do everything to make sure that that continues to happen.”
Spurs made nine signings this summer after promotion from the Championship, including the vastly experienced Gemma Davison, who has won the Women’s Super League four times: twice with Chelsea and once with each with Arsenal and Liverpool.
Davison admits her side face a tough task, but insists she has been impressed with the way her new team-mates have adjusted. “The players have dealt with going into full-time training really well,” she says. “Physically it’s a challenge, but the girls are really committed to it.”
Tottenham face a daunting WSL initiation this afternoon, with last season’s Champions League semifinalists Chelsea hosting their meeting at a sold-out Stamford Bridge. Chelsea decided in July to give away tickets free and all 41,000 were snapped up in just four days. Last season league attendances averaged less than 1,000.
The playing field will at least be levelled a little – four Chelsea players are on international duty while one main goal threat, Fran Kirby, misses out with a knee injury. Kirby says there is “hunger” in the Chelsea squad to regain the title they won in 2017-18, after struggling in Europe last term.
“Everyone’s taken it up another level because we weren’t happy with how we did last year,” she says. “We want to make a real statement this year and push on to achieve bigger things.”
In front of the largest ever Women’s Super League crowd today, they have the perfect chance to show Spurs how tough this division can be.