Albion were well beaten by the FA Women’s Super League champions at Boreham Wood, and Gibbons says the players have shouldered responsibility for the defeat and are looking to put it right when the Hammers visit The People’s Pension Stadium.
She said, “We didn’t give a good enough account of ourselves against Arsenal, and the coaching staff felt the same way.
“We’ve taken the blame for that as players, but we’ve done some vigorous analysis of that game and we’re looking to get better heading into the weekend.
“We know there are no easy games in this league, but we’re excited to have a chance to improve and show the Arsenal result wasn’t a true reflection of us as a team.
“We know West Ham have strengthened from last season and are another solid team in this league, but we’ve strengthened too. We feel like we can compete with them and want to get something out of the game.”
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The 25-year-old is loving the challenge of playing against some of the biggest stars in the women’s game, and explained how the team has made tremendous strides since this time last year.
“We're playing against the best players in the country, probably in Europe and possibly even the world. It’s definitely been a challenge, and there were some tough lessons last year, probably individually and collectively, with the step up to this league.
“But as players, we feel like we’re in a much better position starting this season compared to the last one. Our ambition this time last year was to stay in the league knowing that we had a lot to learn, but now we want to establish ourselves here and push on this season.
“The lessons have been difficult, but you can see that we’re a much stronger team now if you look at our performances compared to the beginning of last season.”
Hope Powell’s side attracted 1,352 fans for Chelsea’s visit to The People’s Pension Stadium in their last home match, and the defender highlighted the key role which the fans will play in trying to turn Crawley into a fortress.
“We got good numbers at the Chelsea game, and we’ll be looking to improve on that. It does make a difference having a good crowd at Crawley because it’s a nice stadium and it’s great to have the fans behind us.
“We want to make Crawley a difficult place to come for teams, so if we can get some good home form leading into Christmas, then that will put us in a good position.”