Arsenal Women continue their search for a 15th Women’s FA Cup trophy after beating Charlton Athletic Women 5-0 to progress to the semi-finals of the competition.
In their win, Arsenal spread the goals around as Kim Little, Heather O’Reilly, Vivianne Miedema, Danielle Carter and Jordan Nobbs were all on target.
At the other end of the pitch with Anna Moorhouse not conceding, Arsenal have gone eight consecutive games without conceding.
After the week’s delay due to the snow, Arsenal got off to the best possible start and were ahead within five minutes following Little’s penalty.
Arsenal’s lead was almost doubled minutes later as Katie McCabe, who was free on the left wing, had her cross-come-shot hit the post and bounce out of play.
Despite Arsenal controlling most of the first-half Charlton were able to get forward on a few occasions with Kit Graham proving to be their most influential player by fashioning a few opportunities.
It would be the gunners who would end the half on top though as Carter saw an effort tipped just over the crossbar by Charlton keeper Katie Startup.
The home side had a dominant first-half, however, their second-half performance was much more productive.
This was effective almost immediately as a couple of minutes into the second-half Danielle van de Donk narrowly missed out on getting herself on the scoresheet as after flying past Startup her shot was stopped by the crossbar.
Soon after and the WS1 side finally had their two-goal cushion. After racing into the Charlton box, O’Reilly was able to smash her effort home to put some daylight between the teams.
Only a few minutes later and it was 3-0. Seconds after her introduction, Miedema made it two goals in two games as she powered a header past Startup. Showing her quality, the former Bayern Munich striker almost grabbed herself a second goal with a long-range effort which, like van de Donk’s earlier effort, beat the Charlton keeper but not the crossbar.
As the game came to a close the hosts were able to add a couple more goals to worsen things for Charlton as Carter nodded home Lisa Evans’ cross before Nobbs hit a classic shot from outside the box into the top corner.
Having now won seven straight games Arsenal are hitting form at just the right time and after his side’s Continental Tyres Cup triumph against Manchester City, Joe Montemurro must believe he can add another trophy to the club’s already illustrious cabinet.
However, before that can be talked about properly Arsenal must head to the Select Security Stadium on April 15th where they’ll play Everton Ladies in the FA Women’s Cup semi-final. The other semi-final sees Manchester City Women play Chelsea Ladies.