5 min: Howard receives the ball in defence and plays a long pass over to Petermann on the left. The striker looks to make a run into the box, but Williamson is there to make the tackle.

3 min: Blackstenius wins a corner for Arsenal. The ball is played short to Mead at the front of the box, who attempts to cross it into a dangerous area, but Leicester can clear the danger.

2 min: As expected, Catley partners Williamson in the centre of defence for Arsenal. The hosts have looked very comfortable in possession so far.

Kick-off

Arsenal are wearing black armbands today to pay tribute to Sir Chips Keswick, who passed away earlier this week.

Just under 10 minutes to go until kick-off at the Emirates Stadium. Don’t forget to email in with all your thoughts, feelings, predictions etc… I’ll be with you all afternoon!

Elsewhere in the WSL today

Manchester United are currently trailing Tottenham 2-1 at Leigh Sports Village. If Marc Skinner’s side lose and Arsenal manage at least a draw this afternoon, United will be out of contention for a Champions League place.

You can follow the match with The Guardian’s minute-by-minute report below.

Bristol City suffered a 1-0 defeat to Liverpool yesterday, while Brighton lost 2-1 to Everton at the Amex Stadium on Friday.

Manchester City are set to face West Ham this afternoon with kick off at 2:15pm GMT.

Discussing his team’s title hopes during a pre-match press conference, Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall explained: “I think it’s about the mentality to always do your best, to never give up. That’s one thing. My assistant coach Aaron, who’s from Australia, he showed me the video of the Australian short skater in the Winter Olympics that was last in the final and then everybody slips and he’s going first over the line. The thing is, are you ready? If someone else slips, are you ready or have you already given up because you didn’t think that was going to happen? I think it’s a mindset thing and that’s why it’s so important to always do your best. You can’t really control what other teams do and there are a lot of external factors that you can’t control either, but what you can control is your own actions and in business they call that to have return on luck to make sure that you position yourself so that if you get in that moment, will your return be a lot? That’s what I think we need to work with.”

Lotte Wubben-Moy, arguably Arsenal’s player of the season so far, has been left out of Jonas Eidevall’s squad for this afternoon’s match. The reason for her absence is currently unknown. A huge miss for the hosts.

Steph Catley will likely step in to partner Leah Williamson in the centre of Arsenal’s defence.

Frida Maanum returns to the Arsenal bench for the first time since collapsing at the Continental Cup final last month. Maanum has been monitored by club doctors in recent weeks while easing back into training.

Vivianne Miedema also returns to the squad following her knee injury. Teenager Katie Reid, who made her WSL debut against Bristol last weekend, has been named on the bench once again.

Team news

Preamble