At A Glance
Aston Villa Women will take to the road for the second time in a week when they face Arsenal on Thursday.
Villa travel to Meadow Park for a crunch quarter-final tie in this season's FA Women's Continental Tyres League Cup.
Kick-off in Borehamwood is set for 7.45pm and is live on the FA Player.
Carla Ward's side have continued their impressive season with an unbeaten start to 2023.
A come-from-behind victory over Tottenham Hotspur was followed up with a determined draw against Manchester City.
And with a chance of silverware within reach, Villa will go all-out against the Gunners.
Thursday's opponents are Arsenal.
Jonas Eidevall's side are on a seven-game unbeaten run and are just three points behind Barclays WSL leaders Manchester United.
Due to their participation in this season's UEFA Champions League, the Gunners have entered the Conti Cup at the quarter-final stage.
While many Arsenal fans will value league and European success over this competition, they will want to fare better than last season's exit at the hands of Marc Skinner's United.
The Last Meeting
Villa Women were beaten 4-1 by Arsenal at Villa Park when these two sides met in December.
The Gunners roared back following Kirsty Hanson’s early opener and recorded an ultimately comfortable victory.
A Rachel Corsie own goal got the visitors back on level terms, before Vivianne Miedema, Katie McCabe and Jordan Nobbs added further goals.
It ended an overall positive calendar year for Carla Ward and Villa.
Team News
Carla Ward confirmed during Wednesday morning's press conference that three Villans have been ruled out of the quarter-final tie.
Lucy Staniforth (cup-tied) and Anna Patten (on-loan from Arsenal) are unable to feature, while Dan Turner misses out having suffered a concussion against Manchester City on Saturday.
Remi Allen and Simone Magill have both continued pitch-based work but are still a significant period away from returning.
Meaghan Sargeant, Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah, Natasha Harding and Freya Gregory remain out with long-term injuries.
The Boss
“We’re taking it very seriously. We’re going to Arsenal with the intent of trying to win the football match. We want to get to a semi-final, so we’ll do everything we can.”
Carla Ward
