Clinical first-half finishing from Kim Little and Vivianne Miedema, with the latter getting her second and Lisa Evans also scoring after the break, ensured Arsenal will host the second leg with a surely unassailable four-goal lead on their Champions League return.
If there was a fear that Arsenal lacked European experience, their dominance here after an absence of five and a half years almost made it feel like time had stood still for them. “It’s nice to be back in the Champions League,” said Little. “I think a lot of us have played in the Champions league and I think we slotted back in very nicely and it was a really professional performance.”
Gone were the worries of pre-season defeats by Wolfsburg, Bayern Munich and Barcelona – tests designed to ready them for this competition – and instead the slick passing football that has become synonymous with the manager, Joe Montemurro, was well and truly back.
“We were very unlucky,” said Fiorentina’s manager, Antonio Cincotta, of the process which saw them draw unseeded Arsenal. “I was very angry when this happened because we had a chance, many options to have another team on a different level. Arsenal are England champions, with players who were second in the World Cup, so for us it was a very tough situation. That is football. I hope in the future we will have groups, it will increase the level. We didn’t have a chance against Arsenal but in a group maybe we could do something better.”
Fiorentina, though, while not the toughest opponents the Gunners could have drawn, were not the easiest on paper either. In their third year in the competition, though having not progressed past the last 16, they readied themselves for the Arsenal onslaught, a back four swiftly reverting into a back five and sometimes six. That meant Arsenal struggled, despite controlling possession, to find the space to shoot in the opening phase of play.
The combination of Little and Miedema split the resolute defence, not once but twice. Less than 20 minutes in and Little sprung Miedema free in the box – she dropped a shoulder, switched on to her right foot and hesitated before swiping past Francesca Durante as she fell off balance.“I struggled a bit with the pitch today,” laughed Miedema. “I fell over a couple of times, it was quite sticky. I don’t know, I saw a little spot in the goal and I just knew I had to go there, so even when I did fall over I could still get it there.”
The home side’s best play came from Lisa De Vanna, Janelle Cordia and Frederikke Thørgersen dancing triangles down the right and catching out Katie McCabe. But just past the half-hour Arsenal had a second. Little and Miedema played a one-two to outfox a dishevelled back line and put the Scot clean through to stroke past Durante.
Arsenal’s versatility helped them through a testing period of injury last season. Here though, the versatility was used as Montemurro has always intended it, to create a fluidity to their play.“Obviously we built the squad for that versatility, for that ability to rotate things, to play our football. You need to understand that we had 14 players away with national teams last week, a lot of them played 90 minutes.
“It was inevitable that the games would catch up on us, so it was good that we could get the game under control and then make the necessary substitutions.”
The former Gunner Janni Arnth handed Arsenal their third on a plate. The centre-back, who joined from Arsenal in the summer, dawdled in the box and Miedema pounced, driving low past Durante.
Four minutes later and it was four as Evans hammered in a volley from five yards. It was enough to make Montemurro feel able to rest some legs and off came Miedema, who missed Arsenal’s season opener against West Ham with a knock, for Jordan Nobbs to get some vital minutes in her recovered knee, as the clock ran down on what was considered one of the toughest ties in the round. Miedema was glad for the rest: “We’ve got Man United coming up on Monday and I just need to recover well and be ready for that game,” she said.
