Arsenal Women: Trailblazers
Arsenal Women: Trailblazers is an independent podcast and community for people who want to understand Arsenal Women a little more deeply - on and off the pitch. I’m Roberto Revilla, a match-going Arsenal supporter, and this is where we make sense of what’s happening around the team together. That might mean looking beyond the scoreline to understand what Renée Slegers is trying to build, getting properly acquainted with a new signing rather than stopping at their statistics, making sense of a transfer, talking through the stories affecting the women’s game, or noticing the little things happening around Arsenal that can easily get lost in the noise. There’ll still be news, transfers, matches, injuries and all the things you’d expect from an Arsenal Women podcast, but Trailblazers isn’t about racing to tell you something you’ve probably already seen on your phone. I’d rather spend some time with it, ask the questions you might be asking yourself and hopefully leave you feeling as though you understand a little more than you did when we started. And this isn’t supposed to be me talking at you. The Trailblazers community is becoming an important part of the show, with your questions, observations and ideas regularly finding their way into episodes. Whether you’ve followed Arsenal Women for years or you’re only just discovering the team, you’re very welcome here. Trailblazers is family-friendly, independently produced and entirely dedicated to Arsenal Women. You can join the conversation on Instagram @arsenalwomentrailblazers, or read the essays and match analysis at arsenalwomentrailblazers.com. You can also email the show at roberto@arsenalwomentrailblazers.com. Follow or subscribe in your podcast app, and if you enjoy spending time with us, please leave a rating or review and share Trailblazers with another Arsenal supporter. Every follow, listen and recommendation helps an entirely independent show continue to grow. Come on you Gunners. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
For the 50th episode of Arsenal Women: Trailblazers, there was only one player I wanted to celebrate, the member of the current Arsenal team who is the embodiment of the word Trailblazer.
Kim Little.
She arrived at Arsenal as a quiet 17-year-old from Mintlaw in 2008, so unnoticed that some of her new teammates initially thought she was simply Julie Fleeting’s friend.
Nearly two decades later, she has surpassed 400 Ar...
Arsenal had 30 shots, 79 per cent possession and hit the crossbar twice, but Crystal Palace left the Emirates with a point after an extraordinary defensive performance.
Having recorded my raw reaction immediately after the match, I’ve now watched it again and the full picture isn’t quite as bleak as it felt at full-time.
We examine how Palace crowded the spaces around Alessia Russo, the opportunities Arsenal created and w...
Arsenal Women have dropped their first points of the new WSL season after being held to a goalless draw by newly promoted Crystal Palace at the Emirates Stadium.
Roberto has just returned from the match and switched on the microphone to record his immediate, completely unscripted reaction to what he saw and felt inside the stadium.
This isn’t the polished match review or the final verdict after watching everything back....
Arsenal Women return to the Emirates on Sunday for their first home match of the new WSL season, with newly promoted Crystal Palace arriving after winning their opening game against Everton.
Palace’s last experience of the WSL ended in relegation, but this is a very different side. Jo Potter guided them back at the first attempt after 12 wins from their final 14 league matches, before adding Bethany England, Molly Bartrip,...
In this week's Arsenal Women news, Mariona Caldentey and Alessia Russo have been nominated for the 2026 Ballon d’Or Féminin, Kyra Cooney-Cross has won Arsenal’s August Goal of the Month and Jessie Gale has scored for England at the Under-20 Women’s World Cup.
But this has also been a remarkable week for Trailblazers.
Roberto shares the story behind an unexpected signed shirt and handwritten note from Kyra and her fa...
Arsenal’s new number 14 arrives in North London with more than a decade of senior football behind her, over 180 appearances for Eintracht Frankfurt and a reputation as one of Switzerland’s most complete midfielders.
But Géraldine Reuteler’s story is about much more than where Renée Slegers might eventually use her.
In the latest of our Trailblazers player-profile documentaries, Roberto goes back to Stans in ...
Arsenal opened the new WSL season with three points at Brighton, but the 1-0 scoreline doesn't really tell you what sort of afternoon this was.
For the opening twenty minutes, we saw plenty of the Arsenal we'd been watching develop throughout pre-season: quick combinations, aggressive counter-pressing, full-backs getting high and Georgia Stanway dropping deep to dictate the way Arsenal built from the back.
Then Brighton began...
Arsenal Women are up and running in the 2026/27 WSL after a 1-0 opening-day win away at Brighton, and nineteen-year-old Lisa Baum has certainly introduced herself to English football.
In this instant post-match reaction, Roberto looks back at a game which gave us plenty of glimpses of the Arsenal we've been watching Renée Slegers build throughout pre-season, from Georgia Stanway dropping deep and dictating possession to the aggressi...
The waiting is over. Arsenal Women begin their 2026/27 WSL season away at Brighton & Hove Albion, and this may not be quite the gentle opening fixture some supporters would have chosen.
Roberto looks ahead to Sunday’s game at Crawley, including Brighton’s summer changes, their pre-season against PSG and Barcelona, the arrival of new head coach Arturo Ruiz and the players Arsenal will need to keep an eye on, inclu...
Arsenal now know their six opponents for the 2026/27 UEFA Women’s Champions League league phase: Barcelona, Lyon, Benfica, Paris FC, HB Køge and Inter Milan.
In this breaking episode of Arsenal Women: Trailblazers, Roberto goes beyond simply listing the fixtures and looks at what the draw actually means for Renée Slegers and this Arsenal squad.
How difficult is Barcelona away? Can Arsenal take something from Lyon at hom...
In this episode, Roberto looks carefully at the allegations being made about Arsenal’s new No.5, tracing what can actually be established from the available evidence, what remains unproven and why repeating something hundreds of times online doesn’t make it fact.
Then we get back to the football.
Who is Élisa de Almeida? What sort of defender have Arsenal signed? Why has Renée Slegers added a 28-year-old with 52 F...
Arsenal’s final week of pre-season has suddenly become rather busy.
Reports suggest Arsenal have agreed terms with Paris Saint-Germain for France international defender Elisa De Almeida, potentially answering the centre-back question we’ve been asking throughout the summer.
Nothing has been officially announced by either club at the time of recording, so Roberto looks at what we actually know, why another specialist centr...
Kyra Cooney-Cross has spent most of her football life ahead of schedule.
She was playing professionally in Australia at 15, made her Matildas debut at 19, went to the Olympics that same year, moved to Europe at 20 and became one of the breakout midfielders of the 2023 Women’s World Cup before joining Arsenal at 21.
But understanding Kyra’s story means understanding far more than the football.
In this special ep...
What looked like a quiet Friday turned into a fairly busy Arsenal Women news round-up.
We start with the Trailblazers community itself, welcoming new website members from the UK, Iceland and Australia, and hearing from Australian listener Nicki Reeves, whose message about Caitlin Foord sent us back into the Arsenal defender’s early career and reminded us why supporters from different parts of the world can sometimes see th...
Arsenal Women finished their latest pre-season test with a 5-1 win over Charlton Athletic at Meadow Park - but the scoreline might be the least interesting thing about the performance.
After my first visit to Meadow Park, I went back and watched the match again to understand what Renée Slegers’ Arsenal were actually trying to do.
And I think we’re beginning to see something taking shape.
We look at the developi...
Arsenal Women face Charlton Athletic at Borehamwood on Wednesday night in their final pre-season friendly before the 2026/27 WSL campaign begins.
But rather than simply predicting a starting XI and a scoreline, I want to use this episode to help us watch the match a little differently.
First, we get to know Charlton. They’re newly promoted to the WSL after coming agonisingly close to automatic promotion last season, and...
Arsenal Women beat Paris FC 1-0 thanks to Olivia Smith’s superb 91st-minute winner - but the scoreline doesn’t really explain what was happening at Borehamwood.
In this episode of Arsenal Women: Trailblazers, I take a proper look at Renée Slegers’ developing 2026/27 Arsenal side and some of the things that were much easier to see once you stopped simply waiting for the goal.
Why were Lisa Baum and Smilla Hol...
Arsenal Women face Paris FC on Sunday in their first watchable pre-season friendly of the summer — and after wins over AC Milan and Manchester City behind closed doors, we can finally see for ourselves what Renée Slegers has been building.
I take a proper look at Paris FC, the players Arsenal need to be aware of and why this should be a much more serious pre-season test than the word “friendly” might suggest. T...
We’ve spent most of Arsenal Women’s pre-season trying to work out what Renée Slegers is building with seven new signings.
Rather helpfully, Renée has now told us.
In a fascinating new interview with Arsenal, Renée explains why recruitment this summer has been so precise, why Arsenal looked at the person behind each player as well as the footballer, how the dynamics and leadership within the squad are changing and ...
Arsenal Women have beaten Manchester City 2-1 in another behind-closed-doors pre-season friendly, and this one gives us quite a bit more to think about than the scoreline alone.
Stina Blackstenius opened the scoring from a Chloe Kelly corner, Lauren Hemp equalised just before half-time, and then late on Selina Cerci put Lisa Baum through on goal for the winner.
But the interesting part for me is what’s beginning to repe...
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