Beth Mead scores her first WSL goals in over a year with first-half brace as Arsenal beat West Ham to keep up the pressure on leaders Chelsea

Two goals in an emphatic Arsenal victory five days after being recalled to the England squad, this was by far the best week of the last 12 months for Beth Mead.

It has been tough on and off the pitch for the forward. She ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in November 2022, missing the World Cup as a result, then lost her mother to Ovarian cancer in January.

But Mead has a smile on her face again and her performance against West Ham was akin to the type witnessed during last summer’s Euros, where she won the golden boot.

The forward was left out of the England squad for last month’s fixtures with Belgium but got the call from Sarina Wiegman this week after proving her fitness is up to scratch. Now she is proving her football is back to its best too. 

Mead’s two strikes saw her become the second Arsenal player after Vivianne Miedema to reach 100 goal involvements (57 goals, 43 assists) in the WSL.

‘The first goal is brilliant,’ Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall said. ‘She constantly puts herself into really good scoring positions so hopefully she has some really good days with England and she can come back and contribute a lot for us in the final block [of games] before Christmas.’

It was not just on the pitch where the difference in quality between Arsenal and West Ham was evident.

At the start of yesterday’s game, the Gunners’ bench, which had an average age of 28 years and 204 days, had 529 WSL appearances between them. West Ham’s, which had an average age of 20 years and 177 days, had just 95.

The Hammers have possibly the worst squad depth in the league. An injury to their No 1 Mackenzie Arnold meant they did not have a reserve goalkeeper on the bench.

That is the challenge facing boss Rehanne Skinner, whose side are joint bottom of the table with Bristol City.

‘That [squad depth] is the difference, isn’t it?’ Skinner said. ‘When you get to these fine margins and you’ve got players that have played 100 caps for their country, they just manage moments in games a little bit differently.

‘Clearly resources [between West Ham and Arsenal] are very different. That’s something that we want to progress but that doesn’t happen overnight.’

Arsenal took the lead after just two minutes when Frida Maanum floated what looked to be a cross into the top left corner. Hammers’ goalkeeper Megan Walsh had no chance, nor did she with Arsenal’s second 16 minutes later. Mead was played through by Kyra Cooney-Cross and drove forward before firing a superb left-footed shot into the same far corner of the net.

It was 3-0 shortly before half-time when Alessia Russo won the ball back deep in West Ham’s half before teeing up Mead to fire in from close range.

Arsenal face a top of the table clash with Chelsea, who beat Leicester 5-2 yesterday, after the international break.