Why Olivia Smith's red-hot form for Arsenal is only a glimpse of what's to come from young CanWNT star
Fresh off winning her first trophy with Arsenal, Olivia Smith seems to be catching fire at just the right time in England.
A week after helping Arsenal win the inaugural FIFA Women’s Champions Cup, scoring in both the semi-final and final of that tournament against FAR Rabat and Corinthians, respectively, Smith scored another massive goal this past weekend, finding the net in a 1-0 win vs. Manchester City in WSL action.
MAGIC PASS. MAGIC FINISH 🪄 pic.twitter.com/YDeBtyNi9N
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) February 8, 2026
Given that City had entered that game having just lost once out of the 14 matches they’d played in WSL action this season, it was a massive win for Arsenal, too, who now sit 10 points behind City (with a game in hand due to the Champions Cup), even though they remain in fourth.
They remain a long shot to win their first WSL title since 2018-2019, but they can dream again - although they’re going to need a lot of help from those around them after their less-than-ideal start to the campaign. It’s not been a bad year, per se, as they’ve lost just once in 14 games, but they’ve also dropped a lot of needless points, drawing five matches.
Yet, that further shows why Smith’s decisiveness against City was such a welcome sight, as Arsenal has sometimes struggled to break open similar games in 2025-2026 - three out of five of their WSL draws have finished 0-0, and the two others 1-1.
This time, though, they made sure not to suffer a sixth draw, as Smith’s 17th-minute goal ended up being the difference in a cagey match where both teams combined for just two big chances (one of them being Smith’s goal).
❗Olivia Smith is alert and opens the score on the rebound!
— DAZN Women's Football (@DAZNWFootball) February 1, 2026
Arsenal lead Corinthians 1-0 in the FIFA Women's Champions Cup final ✨#FIFAWomensChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/5vyUR2gSep
Credit has to be given to her for how she took the goal, too, as she did well to make a great run in behind City’s defence to latch onto a dangerous through ball from Mariona Caldentey, before showing great composure to round the goalkeeper and roll the ball into an empty net.
Most impressively, too, she did that despite playing a new position, as she featured up front for the first time all season, having usually been deployed as either a left or right winger in Arsenal’s usual 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3. 
Here's Smith's heatmap from the 2025-2026 season, showing that while she's mostly played on the right, she's featured everywhere in Arsenal's attack (WyScout)
Of course, though, this isn’t that surprising to see from her. Smith has proven to be capable of playing anywhere in the attack, as she can feature on both wings, up front as a striker, or even deeper as a #10, which is part of the reason why Arsenal coveted her.
Clearly, she impressed in her audition as a striker, too - just days later, she started up front again for Arsenal in leg one of their Round of 16 UEFA Champions League clash against Belgian side OH Leuven on Wednesday, where she scored again to give her goals in four straight games, capping a lively performance where she also had five shots and completed six dribbles. 
Yet, that attacking versatility has clearly allowed her to quickly find a home at her new club, which is why she’s already played 1421 minutes in 24 games played (18 starts) across all competitions, an average of 59 minutes per appearance.
She might not be going the full 90 minutes very often - in fact, she’s not completed a full game yet for Arsenal, with this City and OH Leuven games being just the third and fourth time she’s even played 80 or more minutes this season (she went 84’ against City, and 82’ against OH Leuven) - but she’s making an impact when she’s on the field, which is why her role within this team is quickly growing.
As a result, she’s already up to eight goals and two assists across all competitions after this latest goalscoring hot streak, giving an idea of how dangerous she’s been for her new club.
🤩 Control, vision, finish. A lot to love about Olivia Smith's goal 🫶
— DAZN Women's Football (@DAZNWFootball) January 28, 2026
Watch the FIFA Women's Champions Cup
LIVE and FREE on DAZN in select territories
January 28 - February 1#FIFAWomensChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/Ca7pnD0pzd
Because of that, it seems like a matter of time before she eclipses the nine goals she scored in 2024-2025 for Liverpool, given that she’s now scored seven of her eight goals in her last 12 appearances - showing that she clearly appears to be heating up at the right time. In fact, you have to wonder if she will hit 10 goals by the end of February, let alone by the end of the season - she’s been that good lately.
Certainly, Arsenal wouldn’t mind if that’s the case, because even while their WSL dreams might seem distant, they can still add some other trophies to their cabinet over the next few months, ensuring that their FIFA Champions Cup triumph isn’t the lone piece of silverware that they hoist in 2025-2026.
Of course, the big trophy they’re chasing is the UEFA Champions League, as they won that tournament last year, which is what earned them qualification to the Champions Cup in the first place. They’ve had a poor Champions League campaign by their standards, as they narrowly missed out on automatic qualification to the quarter-finals in the league phase by one point after losing two out of their six group stage games, but they already look set to cruise by OH Leuven in the Round of 16, having carved out a 4-0 advantage after the first leg.
From there, should they finish the job in that tie, they’ll fancy their chances against domestic rivals Chelsea in the quarter-finals, who look far from the force that has dominated the WSL this decade - and from there, it’s anyone’s game in the semi-finals and onwards, should they make it that far. Arsenal will know that well, too, having surprisingly beat Lyonnes in the semi-finals and Barcelona in the final of last year’s competition, which were two results that caught many by surprise.
Otherwise, look for Arsenal to also do well in the FA Cup, especially after being eliminated in the semi-finals of the League Cup by Manchester United. Having last won the FA Cup in 2015-2016, finding a way to win again would more than make up for the missed opportunity of not winning a third League Cup in four years.
What that shows, though, is that there’s plenty for Smith and Arsenal to still play for over the next few months, WSL aside, which is why it’s exciting to see her find some form the way she has.
Plus, what’s encouraging to see is that Smith’s numbers appear to be quite sustainable, too. Certainly, she’s riding a bit of luck with her finishing, as she’s overperformed her xG of 5.96 by just over two goals, but that’s also not surprising to see - Smith’s an exceptional finisher, one who often scores goals from distance, which can skew xG numbers.
Name a more iconic duo than Olivia Smith and goals from outside the box 😮💨@ArsenalWFC pic.twitter.com/58uvnNlwag
— Barclays Women's Super League (@BarclaysWSL) December 13, 2025
To that point, four of her eight goals have been from outside of the box, which is quite the feat, as that just gives an idea of how dangerous she can be from distance. 
Here's Smith's shotmap from this season, across all competitions. Even though she's got a a lot of shots and goals from distance, she's also got a lot of attempts from inside of the box, too (WyScout)
And, more importantly, it’s not as if she’s only firing from distance, either - she is averaging 2.32 shots per 90, and has an xG per shot of around 0.15, which are both encouraging metrics (especially the latter, considering her constant desire to strike low xG shots from distance), showing that she does fire a lot of quality chances towards goal. Sometimes, volume shooters like herself can sacrifice quality for quantity, but she’s got a good mix of both. 
Here's Smith's WSL radar from before the Manchester City game. As seen here, her dribbling, shot quality and chance creation numbers have been excellent, as have her defensive numbers (WyScout)
Otherwise, it’s also quite encouraging that she’s averaging 6.17 touches in the box per 90, showing that while she’s not shy in shooting from distance, she does see a lot of the ball in dangerous areas. A big reason for that, though, has been her remarkable dribbling numbers - she’s averaging 6.06 dribbles per 90, at a whopping 68.6% success rate - showing that she knows how to get the ball to the box.
Not only that, but she’s also showing good growth on the creative side of her game, too, as she’s averaging just over 1.01 key passes and 0.11 xA per 90, which is almost double her 2024-2025 numbers for Liverpool (0.51 key passes, 0.07 xA)
Yet, that’s a key trend when looking at all her numbers - when you compare them to her 2024-2025 output, she has more goals, xG, assists, shot assists, xA, dribbles and touches in the box in 2025-2026 (she had 0.4 goals, 0.3 xG, 0 assists, 5.74 dribbles and 3.43 touches in the box per 90 in 2024-2025, along with her aforementioned 0.51 key passes and 0.07 xA, for context). 
Here's Smith's WSL radar from 2024-2025, showing how much she's rounded out her game in 2025-2026 (WyScout)
Plus, even in other areas, she’s shown areas of growth - she’s now averaging 2.85 crosses per 90, compared to 1.47 in 2024-2025 (even if she’s only completing 20.8% of those crosses), and 2.26 passes into the box, compared to 1.29 in 2024-2025, as she’s trying to play more of a creative role on this Arsenal team.
Of course, there’s the benefit of Smith playing for a better and deeper Arsenal side, which has helped her significantly - it’s easier to create and get on the end of chances when you have better teammates to play with - but she’s still had to go out and earn her minutes on such a team, making it encouraging to see her role grow as the season has gone on.
As seen by the numbers above, she’s certainly earned the opportunities that she’s gotten as of late, so look for her to keep building on this stretch and to keep playing a bigger and bigger role as the year goes on.
For example, it’s a small detail, but despite playing on a team that holds more of the ball, Smith has similar defensive numbers in terms of her duels and recoveries as she did at Liverpool, and she’s even improved her interceptions, showing that she’s been able to be impactful for her side in different ways other than just goals (and it must be remembered that she already had good defensive metrics last year!).
That’s key, because that’s the next step for Smith’s long-term growth, both at the club level and for the CanWNT, where she’s going to be expected to be a leader going forward - to keep rounding out her game.
There’s no doubting her ability to score goals, but there are other areas of her game that she’ll have wanted to improve, such as her chance creation, defending and overall consistency, making it encouraging to see her take strides in each of those areas in her first few months at Arsenal.
WHO ELSE 🔥
— Barclays Women's Super League (@BarclaysWSL) December 6, 2025
Olivia Smith with excellent footwork and long range strike! 🎯#BarclaysWSL @ArsenalWFC pic.twitter.com/Ajj1mZIJ3e
Given that she’s still only 21, a lot of growth is still to come in her game, but it remains remarkable how quickly she’s taken to life at her new club, as some had worried that this move might have come too soon for her. Early signs appear to be that’s not the case, and she’ll now look to prove that with a strong end to the season, building into what will hopefully be a good year for Canada (where she’ll also want to remain injury-free; knock on wood!).
Certainly, this latest stretch has offered a glimpse of what she can do, and that’s encouraging to see, as it must be remembered that she could still hit another level offensively, one that perhaps will soon have her among the best in the world at her position - clearly, she’s already not far off that level today.
All numbers via WyScout, data accurate as of February 12th
