Olivia Smith hits the ground running with a banger in Arsenal debut - ICYMI
It hasn’t taken long for the Olivia Smith era to get kick-started at Arsenal, as the Canadian forward had a debut to remember for her new club this weekend.
After joining the defending UEFA Champions League winners on a then-world record deal from Liverpool this summer, it was uncertain how long it’d take for Smith to find her feet at her new club as the 21-year-old tackles this next chapter of her young career.
The answer, though, was nearly immediately, as she was handed her first start for the club in their WSL opener this past weekend, as they took on the newly promoted London City Lionesses at the Emirates Stadium.
There, she scored her first goal for the club in style, too, finding the top corner with a rocket from outside of the box just 29 minutes into the game, nabbing the first of four Arsenal goals in a 4-1 comeback win.
A statement debut goal for Olivia Smith 😮💨🚀 pic.twitter.com/XjamsyX0Wo
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) September 7, 2025
That’s huge, because on a loaded Arsenal team, it’s unclear yet how many opportunities Smith will get to play this season, especially as a starter. That Arsenal were able to bring players like Beth Mead and Stina Blackstenius off the bench into this game, with Mead generating two assists and Blackstenius nabbing a goal, just gives an idea of the competition that Smith faces for minutes in the attack every week.
With this goal, though, Smith showed that she can hang in that race, and it wasn’t as if it was her only involvement, either, as she also generated four shots and created one chance in her 61 minutes on the pitch.
What a performance 😮💨
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) September 7, 2025
Introducing your Player of the Match… Olivia Smith 🌟 pic.twitter.com/dkorPriHp6
Yet, this shows why this is such a fascinating move for Smith, as she certainly has the talent to shine at a club like this - hence the fee they paid for her this summer, which was over one million pounds, as they looked to nab a player who scored nine goals in 25 games for Liverpool in all competitions as a 20-year-old.
She’ll have a lot of growth still to come in her game, and that was on display in this match, as she generated just 0.15 xG from her four shots, but she got into the right areas of the pitch while playing as a right winger - 10 out of 31 of her touches came in the box, with three of her shots also coming from that area.
Here's Smith's shot map from this game, with her goal highlighted with the ball (FotMob)
Ultimately, she’ll want to ensure she turns those actions into more high-dangerous shots, as she’s got the ability to be lethal in the box, but that’ll only come with time as she continues to improve her decision-making in the final third - which she’ll do if she keeps getting into these good positions. 
Here's Smith's heat map from this game, showing that she was asked to stay quite wide as a winger, before drifting centrally in the final third (SofaScore).
Then, at the other end, she also chipped in with two tackles, one interception, and won five out of seven duels, which is encouraging to see, as one of her biggest areas of growth at Liverpool was the work she did on that side of her game.
Overall, though, it was a positive start to life at her new club - she’ll now look to build on her strong debut when Arsenal takes on West Ham this Friday in the second game of their WSL season. Whether that comes as a starter or not remains to be seen after the strong play of Mead and Blackstenius off the bench, but she should get minutes after her goal, so look for her to make the most of this next opportunity as she tries to hit the ground running in 2025-2026 after her strong 2024-2025 with Liverpool. 
For a full update of a busy weekend of CanWNT players playing abroad, check out Mitchell Tierney’s form guide on OneSoccer.
