Arsenal were 4-0 winners over Leicester City on Sunday night, extending their lead at the top of the WSL to four points. Goals were from Jordan Nobbs, Vivianne Miedema and a brace from Frida Maanu, Jonas Eidevall spoke to the press post match. The first three questions are from Arseblog News.
On Noelle Maritz not being in the squad…
She was just rested.
On Leicester playing a high defensive line…
We prepared for this as a scenario because they played very similar against Man United in the Conti Cup and drew 2-2. Our analyst Johnny Dixon and he got some really good footage of that and we were able to tell the players that beforehand. They caught United offside seven times and you saw that tonight in the opening minutes of the game. We were aware that they didn’t always track and follow runs but you could still see our players were a little bit surprised that they didn’t at first and it took us a couple of tries before we could find the diagonal runs but when we played through it well, we created some really nice goals today.
🗣 "It has been coming."
Jordan Nobbs puts Arsenal ahead 🎯
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On getting three goals from central midfield after six games without a goal from that area…
I don’t worry so much about that but for me it’s about habits and maybe not just the results. You see a player like Nikita Parris and we know how many points she can win us in a season but that’s all about putting yourself into those positions and making those runs that enable her to do that.
Look at her off the ball running tonight, it’s brilliant. So many times she times the run well and so many times she goes on the inside of her marker if you keep asking the questions it’s a matter of time before you score a lot or assist a lot. The three goals from central midfield were about arriving into the area and at least two of them were from long runs to get into those areas and that’s about belief and commitment and understanding the importance of becoming the extra player.
Viv doesn’t miss those! 💥
A signature @ArsenalWFC counter-attacking move ⚡️
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On the principles and non-negotiables for the team…
I can’t give too much away so I don’t know how much I should say. But one thing would be how we build up for us to control situations and that’s one of the things we didn’t do against Chelsea so we never got that free player that could ask that question. We constantly had a player under pressure on the ball or passing to another player under pressure without moving Chelsea’s defensive organisation. When you do that in build-up it is impossible to progress in a good way. Like I said in the programme, I think I should have had a different approach to the game in that sense, to go back and be even more focused on our own principles. That’s life, you learn it just hurts when you learn on such a big occasion.
Super sub @FMaanum 🔥
Replaced @VivianneMiedema and gets on the scoresheet 🙌
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On Chelsea losing to Reading on Saturday…
Don’t care, I can’t control it. For me it’s about focusing on our games, trying to win as many games as possible and going one game at a time. I couldn’t care less about other team’s results because I can’t do anything about it.
On Frida Maanum…
She’s a very, very strong addition and it was very good recruitment from Arsenal to sign a player of that age but who already has a lot of good experience and plays for a strong national team and who played in a good league in Sweden. That was a good foundation to be able to perform at a club like Arsenal. That’s exactly the type of player we should be looking for.
Quick-fire double 🔥🔥@FMaanum with TWO goals in TWO minutes! 🤯
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18.WILLAMS, 4.PATTEN, 20.BOYE (22.Schnaderbeck ‘59), 3.WUBBEN-MOY (29.Goldie) 15.McCABE (7.Catley ‘59); 13.WALTI, 23.IWABUCHI, 8.NOBBS; 14.PARRIS, 9.MEAD (10.Little ‘59); 11.MIEDEMA (12.Maanum ‘71).
Fantastic.
Love the Maanum !!!
Catley was bad ass as well.
Should have been 7-0
Thought this was the best performance from Keets as well
Also Jordan since she was back. But all in all the passing precision from midfield and the back is fire, need not to say the running of viv and keets. It’s just so good to see!
Tim, who would have been responsible for signing Frida, was this before Jonas was appointed?
Yes it was. But he knew her very well from Sweden. He was asked in his interview for three midfielders he’d sign and he named Maanum, so they laughed cos they’d already signed her.
Four point gap again! If fit, Jordan and/or Mana should surely start. They offer something different to a Lia/Kim/Frida midfield. A little more urgency, intricacy and runs into the box. I hope Jonas sees their value.
Have to absolutely agree with this. The Lia/Kim/Frida midfield does not gel well together at all but for some reason Jonas insists on sticking with them.
The passing precision of Jordan/Mana and their composure plus close control with the ball is vital in keeping longer periods of possession against stronger teams too.
Yet when Kim & Frida came on…we score two
I guess I’ll agree to disagree
Happy with the win and love the Chelsea loss.
Peace
I thought wälti-nobbs-mana was dynamic and worked quite well. That we only scored 2 was down to heroics and finishing.
When Maanum came on, it was an interesting tactical change. I thought with leicester sticking to the highline, it would make sense to keep the wingers on. But the plan seemed to draw them into the middle with the technical midfielders and unleash catley, supported by midfield runners like little, maanum and nobbs.
The 2 maanum goals are similar in the build-up.
Everything works well when Arsenal play bottom-tier teams, if we’re honest, and not so well when the team plays a good, strong, pressing opponent.
Problem with Frida and Kim midfield is not player quality. They are absolute class. Problem is that they don’t quite work together. They don’t create enough from midfield, which makes us predictable. Neither of them has an assist in the league yet and their creative numbers are not good. They both need more creative type next to them to open the game up. And for me personally there are not enough movement between them, which is only made worse if the third one is Lia.
Yes, Arsenal’s possession, to me, often seems very by the numbers and predictable.
“[On Chelsea…] Don’t care,” sums it up pretty well for me too.
Happy we have breathing space at the top and a more comfortable-looking run of fixtures coming up!
I liked the “Don’t care” reaction too after Emma Hayes’ less-than-subtle smugness in last Sunday’s post match reaction.
I think the trust and belief between each player has been improved like those runs and passes require mutual understanding and trust between the one passing and collecting to make it happen or it’s so easy to result in offsides or unsuccessful passes.
On a side note, hope they can be more composed in the back but maybe it’s just a new defence line. It is terrifying to watch the ball passing in the back sometimes.
Both fair points.
This felt like the reverse of Thursdays game really, Leicester didn’t really threaten but defended well enough to stop it being a big big scoreline, sometimes teams get harder to break down when they go down to 10 and I think we saw that
Honestly I would dare any team to play that high line against us again after Leah is back from injury. It could have been double figures if Viv had her shooting boots on and if we had better passers in CB. Reminded me the WestHam 9-1 game from last year, absolutely suicidal play by opposition.
Excellent way to bounce back after the last two games and great to see Schnaderbeck back playing after her injury issues.