Undone By Own Errors

7 October, 2025

Meadow Park, London

They entered this campaign as Champions, but this loss to Lyon was the slow collapse of Arsenal’s own architecture.

For a moment, the night seemed to promise another resurgence. Beth Mead, weaving past five defenders with characteristic defiance, slipped a pass to Alessia Russo, whose finish across Christiane Endler was pure efficiency. The roar that followed felt like a restoration of order. But football, as ever, has a short memory.

Lyon, unbeaten in all competitions since Arsenal’s famous 4–1 win in France last April, arrived in London like a wounded dynasty intent on reminding Europe of its pedigree. Their opportunity came swiftly through the Haitian international Melchie Dumornay — 22 years old, fearless, opportunistic — who twice punished Arsenal’s carelessness within five minutes.

First, Daphne van Domselaar invited disaster with a misplaced pass. Dumornay’s first attempt was blocked; her second, a simple rebound, silenced the stands. Minutes later, another loose ball found her at the edge of the box. Her left-footed strike soared high into the net.

From then on, Lyon imposed the quiet dominance of experience. Arsenal chased long balls into the night — Russo isolated and frustrated, Foord slicing the side-netting in the final minutes. At 53 minutes, Caldentey’s curling shot tested Endler, who met it with authority. In their pursuit of an equaliser, Arsenal looked less like champions defending a crown and more like heirs struggling to remember how they had ever won it.

It was good to see Chloe Kelly in the starting lineup, though her impact was limited. And while Reid has performed admirably in Williamson’s absence, these lapses in cohesion and communication can no longer be written off as early-season rust.

Absence: of leadership, of composure, of control. The statistics are damning: four matches without victory — two draws, two defeats. The shape of last season’s early turbulence returns, echoing the same anxious rhythm that preceded Jonas Eidevall’s dismissal. Yet Slegers, having delivered European glory, is unlikely to face the same fate. Her challenge is subtler: to restore coherence where doubt has already taken root. 

After the final whistle, Russo admitted to Alex Scott that the team “has to take accountability.” The words were honest, but insufficient. Arsenal’s undoing was not tactical but psychological. It was not Lyon’s ruthlessness, nor their trophies, that determined the night — it was Arsenal’s own fragility, laid bare once again before Europe.

Arsenal 1 – 2 OL Lyonnes

(A. Russo ‘7, M. Dumornay ‘18, ‘23)