Arsenal Women were in need of a moment of genius with an hour gone and no way of breaking the deadlock against a stubborn Liverpool outfit, and Vivianne Miedema provided it.

The Dutch forward slammed the ball into the roof of the net from 25 yards to put Arsenal ahead, her first goal since returning from an Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury. Miedema reflected the importance of her goal:

“Obviously this game is one that we need to be patient in, and we’re not going to get many chances, so when it goes in you know that the game is going to be open and you’ve got it under control.”

“Obviously on a personal note it has been more than 400 days since I last scored in the WSL, and I think the way the girls celebrated with me says enough. Obviously it’s been a long time coming, I’ve worked really hard for it. I think since the winter I feel like a different player again, I feel so much more like me, and it’s really nice that this one is ticked off and we can all move on.”

“It’s funny because this morning on the bus I said to Beth it just feels good today. I feel like I’ve been training really well, scoring a lot of goals in training, so it might happen here. I’ve read online that I’m pretty decent at scoring against Liverpool as well so I thought I need to keep up that stat! As I said it’s just really nice that it went in, and that first one’s gone”