Jonas Eidevall reacts to 4-1 victory over Everton (including goals)

Arsenal were 4-1 winners away at Everton in the WSL on Wednesday night thanks to a brace from Caitlin Foord and goals from Katie McCabe and Lotte Wubben-Moy in a game marred by another serious looking injury, this time for Lia Walti. Jonas Eidevall spoke to the press post-match. Questions five, six and seven are from Arseblog News.

On the injury to Lia Walti…
It did not look good. We need to wait until the morning and see how it is then. The red card is fair. I mean, there’s no intention of their player to injure our players, but that’s unfortunately what’s happened, with a reckless challenge like that. When you compound it over a whole season, there’s no team that gets fouled more often than Arsenal. I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining about that but I think it compounds over a whole season. I just think if you want to keep the best players on the pitch, it’s important you protect them, and then the sooner you caution fouls like that, that are late and reckless and so on, the better you protect the players. And I think they [the officials] can do a little bit of a better job with that, with our eyes.

That high press from @ArsenalWFC!@CaitlinFoord is back in business 💪#BarclaysWSL pic.twitter.com/beMi7wVci1

— Barclays Women's Super League (@BarclaysWSL) May 17, 2023

On whether he was surprised a yellow card was initially shown…
Yes, I was but it was the right decision. No team gets fouled more than Arsenal and I think that says it all.

On the result and the performance…
The result was really good. The performance was not very good. We were not near that level that we need to be on Sunday. But we know that and we need to find that standard and that level and be ready for it on Sunday.

A quick turn and a great finish from captain @Katie_McCabe11!#BarclaysWSL @ArsenalWFC pic.twitter.com/QSNYMEzrPz

— Barclays Women's Super League (@BarclaysWSL) May 17, 2023

On the game dying down a lot after the Walti injury…
You could see that they were touched by it, that is what we spoke about that no matter how tough it is, we have to be resilient and keep focus. If you are not mentally there that is when you can get an injury too, you need to be fully present. That is the hard part, you see a teammate going off that you care a lot about but the right thing to do is to block out those feelings and emotions and stay 100% focused on the pitch. After the final whistle, you can be as caring as needed and you could see that. But I also thought the first half was not the greatest of performances, that is human.

Right place, right time for @CaitlinFoord!#BarclaysWSL @ArsenalWFC pic.twitter.com/6jQGQkqWFD

— Barclays Women's Super League (@BarclaysWSL) May 17, 2023

On whether they changed their pressing structure when Blackstenius received treatment during the first half…
Yes there was. We went a bit more aggressive with our pressing. Sometimes it is a problem with Everton, they build with so many players that you can become a bit cautious because you can see players around you and you are not really sure, ‘can I leave this space now?’ But if you stay you are creating space for that player on the ball and now she can almost stand on the ball and now you take a step forward and they play in behind you. Then the players behind you are further away while you are already travelling towards the player with the ball, it makes it easier for the other players to go. Your decision making has to be a bit more fearless in those situations so we changed how we pressed with out forwards to enable us to give them less time and space. I think you see we get much better there.

On having the last two games wrapped up by half-time…
We have to be realistic and we are trying to get the conditions as right as possible for Chelsea, we are constantly managing players during the games. It is just as much load management as what is tactically right but as a team, in both second halves we are doing things that is not necessarily the best tactical thing to do but we do it in a protective way. That takes its toll on performances. We think that is the right thing to do to give ourselves the right conditions for the last two games. Our strong first halves allowed us to do that in a comfortable manner. That is impressive. Brighton and Everton away are not easy games and we have made them look that way.

A cheeky header from @lottewubbenmoy 🙌#BarclaysWSL @ArsenalWFC pic.twitter.com/XZdpg5doPL

— Barclays Women's Super League (@BarclaysWSL) May 17, 2023

On the mental strength of his players to keep winning despite the injuries…
You can talk a lot about the sort of person you want to be but you don’t know until you come into this and when it matters, you show who you are. I think it was Arsene Wenger who said there is a difference in football between personality and character. In football you can talk about being one way and that’s the person you want to be. But football will always reveal your character, maybe not the first day but over time it will always reveal your character, you can’t hide, you will face adversity you will face challenges and the players can be very proud of the character reveal for this team because they are made of the good stuff.

On how damaging the injuries are to Arsenal’s ambitions…
It is one game at a time and we can choose to put the focus on what we don’t have or choose to put the focus on what we do have. I know the only thing that will affect us positively is to focus on what we do against Chelsea. That is not always easy but we need to do that and we have been good at doing that so far this season. And I am going to continue to do that.

On whether the players might be affected when it comes to going into challenges…
I don’t think so. It is a really important aspect, we have three values and one of them is being fearless and that is the only way we can play football. We can’t think about situations that can happen because they can always happen, it is an active choice you have and we need to give 100% in each situation.

1.Zinsberger; 3.Wubben-Moy, 5.Beattie, 2.Rafaelle (27.Taylor H/T); 16.Maritz, 12.Maanum, 13.Walti (22.Kuhl ‘53), 15.McCabe(c) (7.Catley ‘88); 21.Pelova, 19.Foord (20.Gio ‘65); 25.Blackstenius (56.Godfrey ‘88).

Unused: 14.D’Angelo, 18.Marckese, 29.Goldie, 50.Doe.