Arsenal were 5-1 victors over Sp*rs in the Women’s FA Cup quarter-final on Wednesday evening with goals from Mana Iwabuchi, an own goal, a brace from Caitlin Foord, Nikita Parris. Arsenal coach Jonas Eidevall spoke to the press post-match. The first four questions are from Arseblog News, the others from other journalists.
On playing against Tottenham’s 442 formation…
Yes we expected that. It’s very common when teams play 442 or 4411 like they do that they try to be very compact when you play inside, you want to move them as a block over the pitch. It was a bit like the Slavia Prague game, we needed to move the ball with speed to move them around. That doesn’t always mean playing on the outside, sometimes gaps open up on the inside too. We made chances that way today and in essence we talked about trying to play through them and then counter press so we can win the ball back and counter attack them. I think we did that fairly well during the game.
On the response to going 1-0 down so early…
Extremely happy with the response. We changed eight players compared to the City game so we knew there were new relationships on the pitch so to see the players’ response, you can’t ask for much more as a coach. We knew at some point we would concede the first goal in a game so it was important to see that response.
Summer signings linking up for @ArsenalWFC 🔗@TobinHeath ⏩ @buchi_mana 🔥#WomensFACup pic.twitter.com/ngKaLO59TB
— Vitality Women's FA Cup (@VitalityWFACup) September 29, 2021
On scoring from setpieces for the third game in a row…
Really happy, the credit goes to (coaches) Leanne Hall and Sebastian Barton who are really working with the team to prepare them for setpieces so we need to keep that as a priority because it can be very valuable during the season.
Quick feet from @lilkeets ⚡️
Tidy finish from @CaitlinFoord 🤩@ArsenalWFC #WomensFACup pic.twitter.com/2FdoCFDLDh
— Vitality Women's FA Cup (@VitalityWFACup) September 29, 2021
On the return of Jordan Nobbs and Viki Schnaderbeck from injury…
Really happy to have Jordan back, she looked really good today, she shows she is a dynamic and technical player and she is great at pressing and with her reactions. It was great to see Viki back from a long term injury, I know she has been fighting very hard so it’s always nice to see the end of a journey like that by giving the player minutes. She has been very professional during this period too.
There’s always danger from @Katie_McCabe11 set pieces 🎯@lilkeets gets her goal! 🔴#WomensFACup pic.twitter.com/vqUdSaXehO
— Vitality Women's FA Cup (@VitalityWFACup) September 29, 2021
On the potential for the squad to get even better…
It’s a frightening thought, right, because it feels like we are scoring a lot at the moment and we look so threatening in attack but we can be better still and the results are excellent and the way we look in attack sometimes, I still think there are areas where we can improve.
On players like Caitlin Foord and Tobin Heath coming into the team and resting Vivianne Miedema…
It’s important because we can talk about having squad depth but it means nothing if the players can’t play. The first thing is that they are available, the second is to have a coach who will use them, the third is that they perform when they are selected. Going into October with a fully fit squad at the moment is extremely important, it means a lot in training and it means we have options in this period.
On being drawn against Brighton in the semi-finals…
I have no real reaction to that, I haven’t really seen Brighton play yet, I have only seen some highlights so I don’t know much about them at the moment. It has been so busy for me, I have just been preparing the next opponent all the time that I have been here and Brighton haven’t been playing the teams we have been playing but any team that gets to the semi-final is going to be a dangerous opponent.
The assist queen strikes again 👑@bmeado9 ⏩ @CaitlinFoord 💥#WomensFACup pic.twitter.com/RFXhUIMT17
— Vitality Women's FA Cup (@VitalityWFACup) September 29, 2021
On where Arsenal can still improve….
It is more about consistency, in our peak moments we look incredibly good and we are playing at a very high level. It is about making sure that we can keep doing that and make our peak moments happen more regularly.
Well done, girls.
If Tottenham haven’t got the message by now, they never will.
Forever in our shadow.
It just keeps getting better and better under Jonas😎
Tottnum get battered everywhere they go!
Tottnum get battered everywhere they go!
Tottnum get battered everywhere they goooooooooooo!
Everywhere they gooooooooooooooo!
🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶
If I had the wings of a sparrow
If I had the arse of a crow
I’d fly over Tottenham tomorrow
And shit on the bastards below
Shit on, shit on, shit on the bastards below below 🎵
Shit on, shit on, shit on the bastards below… 🎵
Do all the soused up Arsenal male fans sing this at Tottenham matches? As an American, I have to admit, I’m always…what?…rather shocked by the crowd behavior at European and South American men’s soccer matches. The crowds are a sea of men, mostly, heavy with drink, chanting riffs like this, bellowing, setting off flares…the ultras and hooligans…the fights and the racism by men who clearly don’t have enough other things going on in their lives and so take football WAY too seriously. It’s all very medieval. I’m reminded of the River Plate v. Boca games of a couple of years… Read more »
It’s not often I agree with you, Armchair, but I do on this occasion. The atmosphere at women’s matches is considerably more pleasant and inviting without these sort of mindless chants and I hope it remains that way for many years to come.
Impressive. Really impressive.
What a fun game to watch! Started off a bit slow, but other than the conceded goal, I love the quality of the back line and the holding midfielders Nobbs and Wälti, both defensively and in the build up to move the ball around to change the point of attack. It enables the attackers to do their stuff.
I had planned to watch the game but it wasn’t available here in Brazil on the FA Player. Any idea if it was somehow available here Tim?
I did watch the City game on YT today, it was great to do so after your analysis. Thanks muchly!
Was not on FA player in the USA either
ESPN+ picked it up in the end. In Brazil I imagine ESPN picked it up too but am not sure on that. These stations tend to decide to show them late in the day. As a rule of thumb, if it’s not on the FA Player, it means a station where you are has picked it up.
Alas, a station I have no access to.
Oh, well…
Thanks for the response
Ok, thanks Tim. I’ll have a look there next time.
A lot of football (and sports in general) is available on usagoals.video. It might not be completely legal and you get a lot of annoying pop ups and will have to click away a whole lot to finally get a video, but I use it for plenty of games that are otherwise not available.
In any other case, a VPN is well worth the money. I’m not 100% sure if it’ll work with the FA Player since I can watch it as a Dutch resident, but that might help with watching all the games.
Yeah agreed! I’m a Dutch expat in the USA and I have a Dutch VPN to watch Dutch TV (oranjeleeuwinnen!!), and if, like for this game, a game is unexpectedly not on the FA player it usually is thru my Dutch VPN 🙂
Leah Williamson is such a joy to watch. Hope we can win things and convince her to stay on.
Meanwhile, Barca trounced Villareal 8-0 away from home in their league. They are really something else. About 23 goals scored now in only 4 games.
I think barca may be more worried about us than we are about them.
Everyone knows how good they are, but we are probably the first team this season they play that can cause them some problems.
Really hope we can come away with something — preferably a win, but I think a draw would work, too.
I am just excited for those games, to get the chance to see how Arsenal match up with the best in Europe without the pressure of it being win or go home. Even if we lose it will be valuable later on in the competition!
Ha, love that spirit Xuan and completely agree!
Highly enjoyable if somewhat chilly night at Meadow Park. The quality in this squad is phenomenal, eight changes from Sunday and the 🐐gets a rest, same end result…..mashed Spuds!
I’m excited to see how we line up / show up against Barca
I think Walti & Maanum will be most important
And Catley / Maritz
I agree about Maanum but I’m less sure about Walti. Jonas doesn’t seem to play her as much; maybe he will against Barca bc he’ll want to line up more defensively but I’m just not sure.
So deep this year and just playing with such confidence.
This game showed me, how much I underrated the pure quality of Jordan, Lia and Leah as all round footballers. Such great quality in their recycling, positioning, passing. It felt like something fell of my eyes. And Tobin … I knew she was good. But the things she did, the runs she made .. what a player. Probably one of our few “natural wingers”. And her set pieces can also be very good. I’m simply impressed.
I loved the way, after a coming-together in the box, instead of rolling around and shouting for a penalty she got back on her feet and put in a cross that almost led to a goal.
Absolutely. All the top players have the hunger.
But Ibwould have still liked to have the penalty. She wanted to score badly, you could see it and feel it. I’m so over the moon right now. I think this is, what a good football team feels like. Haven’t had that for a while.
Yes! I think the defense was flabbergasted that she got back up and did that!
Is it wrong that a little bit of me wanted it to end 5-2 ?
Such good fun to watch this game. Really enjoyable. Well done all.
Thanks, Tim. On JE, I’m really struck by his collective approach to achieving success. I’ve never heard an AWFC manager name-check so many of his/her coaching staff so often. I approve! It’s not just a nice thing to do, he’s stating the truth. The changes affected our level of intensity at the start, but especially after they scored, we improved in that area and pressed more effectively. Lydia Williams is looking in great shape compared to last season and made a couple of really good saves, despite hardly having anything to do for most of the game. Both our keepers… Read more »
What I like most about JE’s style of football, is that it seems to be dogma free. I can’t tell if we are possession team, pressing team, long ball team or tika-taka team, because we can be all above depending on players and game-state. We press if we need to, we transition if we need to – ManC game. We play out from the back and dominate the opposition to death if we need to – Spurs game. What I loved about yersterday was that we fell behind from wonderful long shot, which will happen, to a team who wanted… Read more »
Exactly. We just go out to win and score any way we can. Pragmatic tactics or setup but always attacking so never boring to watch.
Just wanted to add that I always look forward to your comments, Eeleen.
Yes yes yes to both of these comments! It does seem significant that JE has mentioned staff members by name several times now 🙂 and yeah very different games but all convincing. Can’t wait to see his plan against Barca!
Tobin the terrier! What a workrate just a few days after joining up with the team.
Questions keep being asked about back up for Viv but last night we demolished a mid-order WSL team after going a goal down almost from kick off and all Viv had to do was put her feet up and watch!
It was great to see Jordan put in a stint and the return of Viki too.
It will be interesting to see how that Spanish team is dealt with next week.