Arsenal were 4-0 winners against Reading at Meadow Park on Wednesday night thanks to goals from Vivianne Miedema, Katie McCabe, Leah Williamson and Stina Blackstenius. Jonas Eidevall spoke to the press post match, the first three questions are from Arseblog News.
On the team’s recent performances since the second half comeback against Brighton…
We are really growing in the second half of the season after a bad performance against Birmingham, after that we developed and developed. Emotions are always high on the match day but I think today was a really strong performance, the way we move the ball, the way we play away from pressure, the way we open up spaces on the sides and then made the central positions more open. I really enjoyed watching us play today, that was nice! I have high standards, we need to keep going but it’s good to see the levels we can reach.
On the freshness brought to the team by the new signings…
The players we brought in in January, we brought them in because we believed in them. But we know it is sometimes difficult to come in and play in a new team and we respected that. Stina, Rafaelle and Laura Wienroither have impressed me a lot. It comes down to them but it also comes down to the other players, the staff and the club. People are doing things very, very well so these players can do that. They should be recognised too for helping the players, though those players themselves are the most responsible.
She found it btw ✅pic.twitter.com/mVKofPHGji
— Barclays FA Women's Super League (@BarclaysFAWSL) March 2, 2022
On starting Katie McCabe on the right wing tonight…
Katie is so versatile, we also played her as a 10 this season. If she plays to the left you get great crossing from her on her left foot. But if you put her on the right, she can come in and shoot and play reverse passes. We thought it could be a good idea to invert both our wide forwards tonight to get them both coming inside in an inverted position. I think when you see some of the goals, that worked pretty well.
Two goals in two minutes for the Gunners! 😅
Right place, right time as @Katie_McCabe11 gets in on the act 👊
Watch the #BarclaysFAWSL on @bbcthree 📺 pic.twitter.com/XRUNalexC2
— Barclays FA Women's Super League (@BarclaysFAWSL) March 2, 2022
On playing in the space behind the Reading full-backs…
We spoke more about the setup and how to get to the final third, that was one of the scenarios. Their full-backs were isolated in two v ones a lot of times in the game and we spoke about that being one way to exploit them.
𝗕𝘂𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘁 header from @leahcwilliamson! 💥
Rising highest for @ArsenalWFC! 🙌
Watch the #BarclaysFAWSL on @bbcthree 📺 pic.twitter.com/ondDGUUpTf
— Barclays FA Women's Super League (@BarclaysFAWSL) March 2, 2022
On Miedema playing in the number 10 role again…
She was brilliant tonight, it helps a lot to have a player with that technique, you can smash the ball at her and she will control it. Which makes it so hard to defend those spaces against her. Her playing a little bit deeper does not mean that she is not going to be on the end of attacks and that’s so important. It’s a starting position and that’s a position we can link up together but if you see how many times she made the final pass, or shot or second assist. She has a hand in most of our attacks today. It was very, very well done from her.
The Viv x Stina link-up 🔥#BarclaysFAWSL @ArsenalWFC pic.twitter.com/UCCmuyzSzK
— Barclays FA Women's Super League (@BarclaysFAWSL) March 2, 2022
On going five points clear at the top of the table…
I don’t know how the table looks, it doesn’t matter. I know the conditions and we are just going to do our best in every game. We need to put our focus into developing our team still, that is all i am thinking about.
1.Zinsberger; 16.Maritz (26.Wienroither ‘58), 6.Williamson, 2.Rafaelle, 7.Catley; 13.Walti (12.Maanum ‘58), 10.Little(c), 11.Miedema (8.Nobbs ‘74); 19.Foord (9.Mead ‘58), 15.McCabe (77.Heath ‘70), 25.Blackstenius.
“I don’t know how the table looks.”
Love that attitude! 1. Statement of a winner. 2. Statement of someone focused on process and style, knowing results will follow.
All the new signings have been magnificent. It’s also great to have a mostly healthy squad that can practice together, and an enviable bench!
Hi Tim, how come Arsenal Women official twitter handle usually just posts gifs rather than a video of goals as they happen in-match. Also the live commentary doesn’t seem as detailed as the FAWSL handle? Is it a lack of resources or is it just copyright issues?
Copyright, the FAWSL account posts the goals since they have the broadcast partnerships. The AWFC handle moved away from detailed commentary once all of the games were televised. Their rationale is that people can see the game and they are looking for something different from the club account now. I did a podcast with the guys that run the AWFC social media a couple of years back where they explain The Arsenal Women Arsecast Episode 13 – #Content – Arseblog News – the Arsenal news site
LoL, they tried to mark Leah out of the game, then she pops up with a goal 😁👆
And Katie’s rocket…. Well what can we say and thats only 2 of the goals 👌