For those who haven't been paying attention to Aston Villa Women, the results in the Arsenal fixture may have come as something of a surprise. In truth, this has been building and headed in this direction for quite a while. The foundation of Villa's victory over the Gunners has been set under Natalia Arroyo.
It was undoubtedly an incredible result, and Kirsty Hanson's goal was one for the ages. Now isn't exactly the right time, however, to rest on laurels. AVWFC now face another WSL test in West Ham. For Arroyo, this allows the manager to have another opportunity to further assess where her team is and play with the same vigor that allowed them to avoid the drop-down zone.
This is a side that is in form. Even after a win against one of the top WSL teams, Villa are still striving for improvement. The style of play and determination that they've shown against Arsenal, Liverpool, and Tottenham afforded AVWFC to be in this position, and they will continue to press the issue.
With the fear of relegation over, Arroyo wants to simply continue to showcase and work on what currently has Villa on a three-match winning streak. Now with the potential of reincorporating players who were forced to miss the last fixture due to injury, the Villa boss will, hopefully for her, enjoy the possibility of exploring combinations that work well together and seeing what the current roster can accomplish together.
Arroyo discussed her points of emphasis during the lead-up to the Hammers match. The Spaniard mentioned how good their WSL opponents would be and the challenge that they would present away from Villa Park. She noted something important that would be easy for anyone to potentially get swept up by:
"We need to be focused because if we go there celebrating still the win against Arsenal, we will have big problem."
It's natural for any team to still feel confident and somewhat accomplished after pulling off such a strong performance against a high-level side. Arroyo is noting the importance of taking the positives from that last encounter while staying on top of the current task at hand.
Before Arroyo's arrival, something like this looked far from a possibility, but Villa is in a great position to make it four victories in a row in the WSL.