Arsenal will host Aston Villa on the weekend of 17 and 18 January as they enter the Women’s FA Cup.
The tie is expected to be played at Meadow Park, in line with Arsenal’s early season announcement confirming that women’s domestic cup fixtures, including the Adobe Women’s FA Cup and the FA Women’s Subway League Cup, will be staged at the Mangata Pay UK Stadium.
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Prize money at this stage of the competition stands at £54,000 for the winning clubs, with £10,000 awarded to the losing teams.
The full Women’s FA Cup draw is as follows:
1 Charlton Athletic v Swindon Town
2 AFC Bournemouth v Manchester City
3 Ipswich Town v Sheffield United
4 Oxford United v Middlesbrough
5 Chatham Town v York City
6 Arsenal v Aston Villa
7 Manchester United v Burnley
8 Southampton v Bristol City
9 London Bees v Liverpool
10 Tottenham Hotspur v Leicester City
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11 Brighton & Hove Albion v Nottingham Forest
12 Chelsea v Crystal Palace
13 Newcastle United v West Ham United
14 Sunderland v London City Lionesses
15 West Bromwich Albion v Everton
16 Hull City v Birmingham City
There are two ties between WSL sides, Arsenal v Aston Villa and Tottenham v Leicester.
Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea have all been handed favourable draws.
West Ham may face a potential banana skin against an ambitious Newcastle side, while London City Lionesses face a similarly testing trip to Sunderland.
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One tier four club is guaranteed a place in round five, with Chatham Town set to face York City.
The opening block of the year will be extremely demanding for Arsenal. Between 10 January and 22 February, the club will compete across five competitions, the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup, UEFA Women’s Champions League, Barclays WSL, Adobe Women’s FA Cup and the Subway Cup.
Across that period, Arsenal are expected to play between seven and 11 matches in total. Reinforcements during the January transfer window would therefore be timely.
