Chelsea 5, Arsenal 2 - London is well represented in Lionesses squad for Arnold Clark Cup

By Paul Lagan

Chelsea's Millie Bright, Fran Kirby, Niamh Charles, Lauren James and Jess Cater lead the London contingent in Sarina Wiegman's squad for the upcoming Arnold Clark Cup.

Arsenal' Leah Williamson and Lotte Wubben-Moy are the only two other players from London.

Beth England, now of Spurs following her move from Chelsea has not regained her place.

England have named a 26-player squad to compete for the cup against

Korea Republic, Italy and Belgium this month.

The Lionesses were the inaugural winners of the four-nation competition on home

soil last year before going on to become UEFA Women’s EURO champions in the

summer.

With this year’s fixtures to be played on double-header match days in Milton Keynes,

Coventry and Bristol, Sarina Wiegman’s squad will hope for three positive

performances to set them up for the FIFA Women’s World Cup challenge in Australia

beginning in July.

Captain Williamson is back in the squad after injury forced her out of

November’s 4-0 defeat of Japan and 1-1 draw with Norway in Spain, while Jess

Park, who scored on her debut in the first game, is also included again. Beth Mead is

among those to miss out after suffering an injury just before Christmas.

Wiegman said: “The first camp of the year is always important to set the right tone

for what comes next, especially with such a big opportunity in the summer. We are

only looking forward now and we have to stay humble and focused on working hard.

We know the fans will be with us again and we can’t wait to see them at every

stadium.

“We had a positive experience with the Arnold Clark Cup last time. We had three

tough matches with different challenges in each one, and we were able to learn a lot

from our performances and work on many details which we are aiming to do again.”

The matches:

Arnold Clark Cup schedule

16 February, Milton Keynes

Italy v Belgium, 4.45pm

England v Korea Republic, 7.45pm

19 February, Coventry

England v Italy, 3.15pm

Belgium v Korea Republic, 6.15pm