Arsenal Women 9-0 Leeds Women: Blackstenius scores brace as Arsenal progress

Arsenal showed the gulf between the Women’s Super League and the lower tiers with a 9-0 thrashing of Leeds in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

The Gunners have won this competition 14 times, beating Leeds on two of those occasions - in 2006 and 2008. But Leeds have fallen down the football pyramid since then.

Three divisions below their opponents, the Yorkshire club is made up of part-time players who work full-time jobs. Rick Passmoor’s side had managed to keep the score down to 3-0 at half-time but the difference in fitness levels was evident as the hosts fired in six second half goals.

Leeds had also not played a game since December due to postponements to league games so it was always going to be a case of when, not if, Arsenal broke the deadlock. The Leeds resistance only lasted ten minutes. A Katie McCabe corner caused confusion in the Leeds box and Caitlin Foord was able to force the ball over the line from close range.

The Gunners doubled their lead three minutes later as two new signings combined on their debuts. Victoria Pelova found space on the right and threaded the ball through to Katrina Kuhl. Her shot lacked power but slipped through the hands of Carrie Simpson.

The Leeds goalkeeper made two fantastic saves to prevent Foord from making it 3-0 on the half hour mark. But a third did come before half-time as Kim Little converted a penalty after Foord was tripped in the box.

There was no let up for Leeds as Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall brought on four international players for the second half. Thirteen minutes after the break one of them added their name to the scoresheet as Lina Hurtig met McCabe’s corner to power a header past Simpson.

It was another corner that brought the fifth goal as this time defender Jen Beattie sent a looping header from the back-post into the roof of the net. Arsenal got more and more dominant as Leeds tired and Stina Blackstenius added a sixth and seventh in the space of three minutes.

There was a first senior goal for Michelle Agyemang, who showed great feet and composure to finish at the back-post, before a debut strike from Pelova made it 9-0 before full-time.

The fifth-round draw will take place during the BBC's Sportsday show on the BBC news channel and BBC iPlayer.