Arsenal were 3-0 victors over Everton in the WSL on Sunday night thanks to goals from Caitlin Foord, Beth Mead and Jordan Nobbs. Jonas Eidevall spoke to the press post-match, the first four questions are from Arseblog News.
On whether Everton lined up as he was expecting…
Yes, very much in line with how they played against Manchester City and many times teams line up similar against us to how they do against Manchester City so that’s usually the place to look!
On controlling the tempo and the emotion of the game…
A lot of the things we spoke about after the Chelsea game and the things we worked on in training were really showcased in the game today. We were so disappointed not to get sustained possession in Chelsea’s half last week and we were way too stressed with the ball. We need to understand the decision making when we go forwards, in a counter attack for example, then you need to really commit. But sometimes you really need to step on the ball, to organise the team and make more passes so we move them and then we find the moment to go through and we did that so much better here today. We had long spells where Everton had to work really hard off the ball and we were finding good moments to go through and even the times when we didn’t get through, we were so well together that we counterpressed and got the ball back and they couldn’t start any counter attacks.
The ball from @leahcwilliamson 😍
The finish from @CaitlinFoord 😎@ArsenalWFC take the lead at Walton Hall Park! pic.twitter.com/yq40lIYhuE— Barclays FA Women's Super League (@BarclaysFAWSL) April 24, 2022
On stretching the pitch by going wider in the second half…
We spoke about the decision making about when we should stay on one side and when we should go to central zones or the other side. That took a little too long in the first half so we were still very much in control but sometimes we kept the ball in spaces where we had even numbers. In the second half we were much better at moving the ball quicker and creating that extra player.
On Jordan Nobbs coming off the bench to score her 50th WSL goal…
Extremely pleased for her and extremely pleased with how she has trained this week. I spoke with her and I said unfortunately she wasn’t going to start but I thought she had trained excellently but I know she is so ready to come off the bench and she showed that. It is so important to us, you remember the minutes the players play and today she showed what a great player she is. I am really happy she got an end product from it because I know that is important to her so that was excellent to see.
On Beth Mead reaching 50 WSL goals and breaking the WSL assist record…
It shows how humble and grateful I should be to work with legendary players like that. But I also think that it is being part of being at this club to achieve things like that and not be satisfied with it. We are really happy and proud about it today but then we need to keep it going to strive for even more.
On playing after Chelsea earlier in the day…
Every time you manage Arsenal or play for Arsenal, the expectation is that you win. To be honest, Chelsea’s result doesn’t really matter to me because the pressure is on every game, I can’t feel more pressure. I support this club and I am so privileged to be here and I want nothing else other than to showcase this club so that pressure is on all the time.
Beth Mead scores her 50th #BarclaysFAWSL goal! 🔥@ArsenalWFC @bmeado9 pic.twitter.com/0BntUgz8vE
— Barclays FA Women's Super League (@BarclaysFAWSL) April 24, 2022
On whether he will watch Chelsea v Spurs on Thursday night…
I don’t think so. Thursdays are our day off so I will spend it with my kids, I might catch the second half. I will rewatch the game because we play Tottenham but the game will not change if I see it!
On only being able to select 11 players…
It is part of the game and it is part of how we want to operate as a club to have really high competition for spots. I find it difficult to put good players on the bench because i know every player on our bench would start for many other WSL clubs. I want them to play because they work so hard and I want them to showcase their abilities to the world and their national team coaches, it is not easy but it’s part of the job and not everything is easy.
We've got ANOTHER new member of the 5️⃣0️⃣ club! @JordanNobbs8 scores a beauty for her 50th #BarclaysFAWSL goal! 💥 pic.twitter.com/f5JGlBS8cO
— Barclays FA Women's Super League (@BarclaysFAWSL) April 24, 2022
1.Zinsberger; 16.Maritz, 6.Williamson, 3.Wubben-Moy, 7.Catley; 13.Walti (12.Maanum ‘87), 10.Little(c) (23.Iwabuchi ‘78), 11.Miedema (14.Parris ‘78); 9.Mead, 19.Foord (8.Nobbs ‘69); 25.Blackstenius (15.McCabe ‘69).
He needs to keep the bench warmers happy or they will be leaving. Next season will be another busy one and most of this team will be at the Euros.
But ending the season with nothing is hugely disappointing. He needs to do better with these legends that he has. Taking Stina off and moving Viv to the 9 made a huge impact.
It was another ineffective display until Viv was , finally, moved back up front. But as we were playing a pretty poor side we should have rolled them over before half time. Thats the diffrrence between us and Chelsea . Management.
He keeps playing stinius and she keeps underperforming, today was classic the moment stinius was taken off Arsenal came alive and looked like the team they should be. Yet again Jordan on the bench, IMO Eidevall needs to go he’s ruining this team.
Surprised by the comments so far, thought Arsenal were absolutely in control of this game for every single moment and played well. Everton had 9-10 behind the ball at all times and that’s never easy to play through but Arsenal did it well after a fairly pedestrian first 20. Had any Arsenal fan watched Chelsea put in this exact performance and result, I doubt anyone would have found anything wrong with it at all.
Where is the constant pressing Jonas always talks about? It wasn’t there against WOB or Chelsea last weekend. Everton offered no attacking threat, Manu hardly touched the ball all game yet we can’t break them down. 3-0 flattered the performance. Beth was offside for her goal. Stina is less effective than Viv in the 9 role. It doesn’t work Tim, this team played like last season’s Arsenal. There’s zero improvement in the style of play, it’s still playing across the backline and down the wings and the occasional ball in behind from Leah. Same tactics as Joe.
Would point you to my analysis piece out tomorrow- there was an absolute glut of pressing, loads and loads and loads of it. That is exactly why Everton offered no threat, the press stopped them stringing three passes together. I found loads and loads of examples of it. The tactics are not like Montemurro’s Arsenal at all.
I don’t understand either. There appears an assumption with many of the contributors to this forum that all Arsenal games should be demonstration matches for the “beautiful game”! The truth is, no team is going to have everything their own way and to actually win trophies you have to dig deep and play ugly sometimes. At the start of each WSL game the object is to win 3 points and how you get that is of less importance. There was pressure on our girls yesterday knowing that Chelsea had already turned over the Spuds (thanks for nothing Tottenham!) and they… Read more »
You could also have said that, for the first half, Chelsea were pretty ineffective and lucky to be level thanks to Guro Reiten’s crot (Patent:B. Mead), but they did what they needed to do. It’s the depth of their squad which always gets them through.
By the way, I think the refereeing in this match was actually quite good.
Personally, I’d point to Ashleigh “Ashleigh Neville for England” Neville’s key role in the first two Chelsea goals (as well as Villa’s winner in the last WSL game). When you’re running at defending like that, you can get away with being pretty ineffective.
It baffles me too (although I often feel like I’m watching a different game on TV to the one the commentators are watching). The idea that there was no pressing, same tactics as Joe etc is parallel universe stuff.
Also can i say that Blackstenius did score a legitimate goal. Sure it won’t show up on any stat sheet or score line but despite it not being her best game she produced a fine finish. I thought Arsenal were excellent, especially in the second half. They didn’t allow Everton really any chances at all. Kim little seems a little tired perhaps. Really nice to see Nobbs score and I hope that performance leads to atleast one start before the end of the season.
Just because we won 3-0 here in the end, we cannot forget how terrible the refereeing was here. Stinas goal was clearly onside. (Would also take away the idea that Stina up front doesn’t work). Then Beth is clearly shoved to the floor, could’ve (should’ve) gotten a penalty for that. Leo makes a clear handball in the box the 2nd half so 2nd penalty. Caitlin might’ve been offside on her goal. Plenty of key moments gone the wrong way.
We moan about referees in the premier League but some of these wsl officials make them look like model professionals
That’s been a problem for a long while. The standard of officiating hasn’t kept up with the advances in professionalism in the rest of the women’s game. For some reason there appears to be little interest in refereeing. Everyone and their mate wants to be a media pundit if they cannot actually play! VAR is not the answer. Could you imagine how long it would take to play a game with the number of contentious decisions that would need to be checked. It is bad enough kicking off at 18:45 on a Sunday evening never mind continuing to play until… Read more »
Congratulations to Beth and Jordon! Both are great players and have a lot more to contribute.I was impressed with they way we played. The first half is almost always used getting used to how the other team are playing. Five at the back is not easy to break through. Second half is always better for the more stronger team. I’d also like to give a shout out to Leah whose passing and control from the back was brilliant! We may not win the league but it is still a close thing and Chelsea only have to slip up once!