Two in two years
Olivia Smith collected the PFA Women’s Young Player of the Year award on Tuesday night. She had already won it twelve months earlier, in Liverpool red. That makes her the second player in the award’s history to take it twice, after Lauren Hemp.
She is also only the second Arsenal player to win it at all. Leah Williamson did it in 2014-15, and nobody at the club had matched her since.
Smith turned 22 earlier this month. Behind her sit spells at Sporting CP, Liverpool and now Arsenal, plus a Canada cap won at 15, a national record that still stands.
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What the first Arsenal season looked like
Arsenal paid Liverpool £1 million for her last summer, a world record at the time. Year one justified the outlay. Smith made 38 appearances across all competitions, behind only Alessia Russo, Mariona Caldentey and Katie McCabe on 40 apiece. Her 2,258 competitive minutes ranked eighth in the squad.
Fourteen goal involvements followed. Only Russo (32), Stina Blackstenius (19) and Frida Maanum (16) bettered that. In the WSL alone she was one of four players under 22 to reach eight goal involvements, five goals and three assists.
Running with the ball stays her weapon. Nobody in the WSL carried into the opposition box more often than Smith last season (41). She was one of five players to hit double figures for both shots (12) and chances created (10) following a carry, and she won 2.2 fouls per 90, third among players with 800 minutes or more.
She credits taekwondo for part of it. “It’s quite underestimated the things that it can do for you,” she said. “My shot power was definitely helped in terms of technique, how I strike the ball, especially in my hip movement.”
The creator Arsenal unlocked
At Liverpool she was the shooter. Twenty of her 22 shot involvements after a carry ended with her own effort. Under Renée Slegers the split sits close to even, and her open-play chances created per 90 doubled from 0.9 to 1.8. Expected assists climbed from 0.05 to 0.23.
Arsenal open at Brighton, then host Crystal Palace, before Manchester United arrive and trips to Chelsea and Manchester City follow. Opta’s Power Rankings make that the hardest five-game start in the league. Canada meet Panama in the Concacaf quarter-finals in November, with a World Cup place attached.
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