Arsenal grabbed a late double to beat Aston Villa 2-1 in the WSL at Emirates Stadium on Sunday. Katie McCabe equalised on 92 minutes before Alessia Russo notched a 96th minute winner to give the Gunners their first victory of the season. Jonas Eidevall spoke to the press post-match, the first two questions are from Arseblog News.
On how Arsenal were able to better energise the crowd and create momentum compared to the Liverpool game…
We are far better in our decision making when to cross and when to go for the final pass and when to go for an extra pass. We play the situations better and our team shape is much, much better. We are higher as a team and we suffocate the opponent more, even when we don’t get first contact on passes and so on then we have another player that can pick the ball up again, so the number of counter pressures today far exceeds what we did in the first two games.
That stacks situations on top of each other. The crowd gets energised but that was in the first half too, the players engaged with the crowd, it works two ways and we got a better energy today than against Liverpool. That is important, those intangible things count. Why are we able to create that momentum in the last 20-25 minutes? The crowd plays a huge part in that, so does the team. Without each other that is impossible, it was both and that made me very happy.
On the impact of the Arsenal substitutes…
It is a big difference to the last time we played Aston Villa (in May). When we lost Stina at half time in May we barely had any attacking players on the bench. Now we have an abundance. There were players on the bench today who have practiced really, really well. The decision went with other players because that was what gave us the best opportunity. But you can see in the second half from each substitution, we become more aggressive, more offensively structured. As a coach, I probably would have liked a defensive sub when we make it 2-1 and there is six or seven minutes left! Maybe we didn’t need that offensive a line-up at that stage but, as a mentality, it was really important.
On the quality of the goals…
The first goal was really good, it highlights our ability to press- that hasn’t been good enough in the first two games of the season. We pressed too little and we have given opponents too much time and space, we were much better with that today. Much more intense from the midfield, Victoria (Pelova) wins the ball in a really good challenge to set that situation up. The quality of the finish is great but sometimes things play into each other. Our goalkeeping coach Seb Barton and Kelly Smith, they work with our forwards to see the goalkeepers we are playing against and what types of finishes that would be most effective. Without exposing too much, the goal and the finish is a prime example of that work when a great left foot like Katie McCabe takes on the information from two great footballing minds in Kelly Smith and Sebastien Barton.
Smashed home by @Katie_McCabe11 ☄️
The @ArsenalWFC fans loved that one! #BarclaysWSL pic.twitter.com/1CrMU1Fa6e
— Barclays Women’s Super League (@BarclaysWSL) October 15, 2023
On the reception Beth Mead got from the crowd when she came on…
She deserves that reception, she has worked so hard. She has had a really difficult year, being injured, her mum passing away. It has been incredibly tough, it is so nice to see her back on the pitch, being able to perform straight away. You never know that, you have the hope, otherwise I wouldn’t have put her on but you don’t know until you see. A special moment for her.
Late scenes from Meado and Russo 🤯 pic.twitter.com/xeRN1DoB2h
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) October 15, 2023
On the mentality of scoring in stoppage time two weeks in a row…
The goal we scored against United comes from good decision making. If the easiest thing was just to kick the ball long and hope for the best, we would do from the first second. Football is not a sport like that, it is about taking many good decisions and positions and wait to create the right moments. That’s the hardest when you don’t have the result. If you are winning 2-0 it is not difficult, time and everything is in your favour and you don’t need to stress.
But when you are chasing something, it’s a bit different and that is where you need to stay mentally strong and trust those good decisions. Even if people say “shoot!” Being able to say, ‘no, maybe it is better to make another pass’ or better to set up the situation. The second goal is a prime example, if Beth Mead just takes the shot it will be blocked and maybe a transition against us. But what makes her special is she knows the shot is not on, so she sets up a good pass for Russo instead and it’s a goal.
That is so important and it shows what mental strength looks like on a football pitch. Sometimes we think it is just about working hard and not giving up but those decisions, when I talk mental strength, those are the most important ones. To not stress, to understand when to make another pass and then trust a teammate to finish it.
On Beth Mead’s assist for the winner in her first game back…
It is huge and you compare to the Liverpool game, how many times did Liverpool block shots from us? It’s a massive part to understand ‘is my shot going to be blocked?’ Or ‘do we need another pass?’ Beth Mead is extremely intuitive in those moments. She comes onto the pitch and sometimes you think ‘will she get that straight away?’ And sometimes you don’t, but she does because she is Beth Mead.
On Mead and Russo combining for the winner being portentous…
Let’s hope so! We see them together in the national team, so it’s not a hope based on fantasy, we have seen it work in reality. But we have a lot of good relationships going on.
On whether Mead will join up with England later this month…
Sarina’s job, I can’t comment on. I don’t see all the players she has the opportunity to select. It’s not like she does 15 minutes here and now she is a 90 minute player, it doesn’t work like that. We work closely with the medical team, as we have all the way to this point. We continue to take good decisions, which is not about stopping her from playing but also not being too offensive or optimistic and taking risks. It is important to manage this process in a good way and that has not ended yet because she did 15 minutes today.
1.Zinsberger; 28.Ilestedt (21.Pelova ‘63), 3.Wubben-Moy, 7.Catley; 16.Maritz (9.Mead ‘87), 10.Little(c), 13.Walti (25.Blackstenius ‘75), 15.McCabe; 12.Maanum (24.Lacasse ‘63), 19.Foord; 23.Russo.
Unused: 5.Beattie, 14.D’Angelo, 22.Kuhl, 27.Codina, 32.Cooney-Cross.
2 late goals (1 from a moment of individual brilliance, the other from a goalkeeping error) don’t change a diabolical start to the season after a mediocre previous season and a toothless performance for most of the game.
We’re out of the Champion’s league before it even started, having barely snuck into the top 3 last year. Lost to a poor Liverpool side. Needed a late goal just to get a point against Man U. Now another poor performance and relying on yet more late goals
Yet we give our manager a new contract? He needs to go. Jonas out
This is a top team and a lot of money has been spent. We should be challenging for the league and with a better manager we would be
oh please stop moaning. Last time I checked, the table doesn’t care when the goals are scored. Also, “barely snuck into the top 3 last year” is a completely ass-hatted comment. They finished top 3 after sustaining an injury onslaught that would have leveled every other team in the league.
So you are a Jonas hater, we get it. Now please come back when they lose a match to share your pearl’s of wisdom ok? I’m going to enjoy this victory all week and now maybe smile a bit more because you can’t. Thoughts and Prayers son.
We limped into the top three last year missing half our best players. How well do you think the men would have done without Saka, Martinelli, Odegaard, Saliba and Gabriel for most of the season? But hey don’t let that stop you from having a good moan!
Injuries are not an excuse. So much money has been spent. Only 3 main players have been injured long-term (Mead, Miedema, Williamson), not 5 as you suggested. And due to our high spending, we have good replacements for all of them. We need to stop accepting mediocrity. Jonas out
By May of last season the injury situation was as follows 4 of 8 defenders injured (50% injured) 1 of 5 midfielders injured (20% injured) 4 of 8 forwards injured (50% injured) 9 of 21 players injured (43% injured) Kim was out for the remainder of the season, Steph and Caitlin were out for several weeks, Laura was the 4th player to rupture her ACL and then Teyah Goldie the 5th although she was not a first teamer obviously. The point is that is a huge number of injuries, Viv, Beth, Leah and Kim all key players. The fact that… Read more »
Significant investment was brought in to provide cover for those absent players. The tactics are what’s holding the players back, and that’s the managers responsibility to sort out. 4 points this season due in large part to individual quality is not a blueprint for success as its not reliable.
Chelsea have been reliant on the sheer quantity of individual brilliance for a while now and it hasn’t done them any harm!
Sometimes I think Jonas should just send the girls out and say “play football” don’t worry about getting mixed up in all this tactical nonsense! Effectively that’s what happened for the last 20 minutes of yesterday’s game, they threw caution to the wind, forgot all the tactics and just went on wave after wave of attack. You would need a world class defence to stand up to that battering!
You are absolutely right he is a dreadful coach who has had an easy ride in terms of criticism. The football this team play under him is dreadful to watch. The guy main strength as a coach is managing to restrict real analysis and criticism of his tatics and style with supposed reasoned excuses. Arsenal Women will win absolutely nothining of significance with this guy as coach despite him receiving the highest financial backing than the past 3 coaches received as a whole. The guy is appalling and his football is dross.
Agreed. And there is deffo an element of giving him an easy ride as the women’s team is less intense. If he was manager of the men’s team, he’d be gone by now
So beating Chelsea 3:1 in the cup was dross then? So to walloping Lyon away from home 5:1 in the CL?
We played Chelsea 4 times last year, once in League cup, once in FA cup and twice in the league. 1 win, 1 draw, 2 defeats. Not good enough. Yes that win was a good performance, but we lost to them in the league and also in the FA cup. Lyon was also a good performance, but we lost to them in the home leg and then were poor in the CL semi-final. There were too many poor performances last season as well as this season
It was not a toothless performance – we were dynamic and always pushing & attacking throughout the game, against an opponent who were set up to defend and counter attack.
Maybe we were in the last 10 minutes
Only probably is football is 90 minutes plus
And who beat us 2:0 same fixture last season. A fact conveniently ignored by the Jonas haters or that Villa are a really good team!
The fact that Villa beat us last season, a team also managed by Jonas, does not help your case
Villa don’t seem a good team. They lost to Liverpool before this match. Liverpool is improved but has been bottom of the table for a few years.
Lol…that’s a lot of bile.
Eidevall stole something of yours?
Lucky win.
Jonas still got a very long way to go.
I think in the middle period of the match it was all a bit unimaginative and we fell into spamming crosses again but the XG was 2.2 to 0.4, that says that, really, Villa were on the generous end of things in terms of the final score.
SLOW!!! Arsenal are at their best offensively when they use the speed of transition to their advantage. Too slow moving the ball today but credit to Aston Villa for minimizing the space behind their defense. We had to go 1 -1 for their defense to really push up and give Stina space to run into. I have faith that the current manager will figure it out. Biggest concern is the defensive errors that have cost Arsenal all 4 of the goals conceded in WSL this year. And the two against Paris. We would likely have 3 Wins and still be… Read more »
Glad that someone else can see sense and the promise that a few more training sessions can provide.
Yes, I think losing the first choice centre-halves from last season is causing us issues in build-up. This also felt like a Viv game in the 10 role, someone who can hold and spin in tight spaces. Not sure I would start games like this, but I do like Russo just behind Stina.
He shouldn’t be allowed to. Does anyone actually fancy the chance of him guiding us to league or CL trophy in the next 3 years? If not, each game with Jonas still in charge is a game wasted. I’ve certainly seen enough of him. Time for someone with different ideas to have a go.
You guys kill me you really do. No doubt you were yelling *Arteta out* after his first season. Jonas has done just as well as Mikel did in his first season in fact better. Aston Villa are no pushover, they beat us 2:0 in the same fixture last season. It was all one-way traffic in the second half and a win for us was a fair result! Once again a Katie rocket helped save the day. This time we had a really strong bench to change the game and how great to see Beth back on the pitch. Plus we… Read more »
First thing to say is please, Jonas, don’t let Beth go to England camp. Sarina (God love her) will play her into the ground again. I don’t agree with a lot of JE’s take on today’s performance, but I do also sing the praises of Kelly Smith. Even the shot from Stina that hit the post showed her influence. And I think that JE is right – it might have been more sensible to make a pragmatic defensive sub at 2-1 up, but for morale and team mentality (need a lot more urgency) continuing to go for it was more… Read more »
Great comment, t I’ve slightly relaxed my view on the past few games. Today we didn’t need to build form the back much because of our work in keeping the ball in their third but I honestly understand why we were rudimentary in possession against united because teams have become very good out of possession so risking playing out from the back with a backline that hasn’t played much may actually make sense. I actually think today was a very good performance even though we lacked ideas sometimes in the final third. I think occupying good areas is a good… Read more »
Fair enough – thanks for the gloss. It looks and feels quite samey to me, but maybe I’m not seeing the nuance.
Interesting point about the set piece coach. When looking at the stats of Arsenal players in set pieces with their national teams there is a noticeable drop off when they play for Arsenal (especially the Swedish players). Will be interesting to see how this develops
Superb analysis and comments, Ms Fun Gunner – it was a great game to watch, and we played pretty well against very defensively minded opponents.
Very much agree that a tactical re-think is required. I also feel we could have freshened our approach by starting with KK, Lina and Kyra.
Great points Fun as others have said. Spot on with the set piece coach, we’ve got a CB who finished in the Top 3 scorers at the World Cup with all her goals coming from corners & we’re not gonna play to that strength of hers? Maybe the girls set piece coach can pop into Mikel’s office & ask if he can borrow Nico for 2 hours every week & see if he can share some tips on how to improve in that area cause the men’s team seem to be alright at it. As for Caitlin, that must’ve been… Read more »
I always appreciate your posts, Fun Gunner! You, also, are class.
2.2 to 0.4 xG according to Scott. Think the Liverpool game was probably similar based on how they both looked in the ground. Don’t think the team is far away, just got footballed in the Liverpool match. Mead coming back made a huge difference, more connections and access to central areas. Well done, on to the next one. Also Jonas comes across really well in his comments.
Gonna be another slightly long read so please bear with me. 1. Brilliant resilience and courage to pull that back. Thanks to a GK error that wasn’t ours for once for the win but the girls did brilliantly to keep plugging away. Think the subs changed the game for us. Benefit of having a deep squad. 2. The fact that Jonas played Maanum for this long in this game makes me question him even more. She was basically playing against us. Again, it is shocking how a no 10 cannot pick killer passes to save her life. To make things… Read more »
I agree about Kim and Lia – I put it down to the fact that they are both having to expend more energy. I really love Kim being encouraged to do more of her work closer to goal but there is no question it is more effort. Lia is also being encouraged to go higher up – I’m not so keen on that. I prefer her as a DLP and mopper-upper. She controls play and fills in behind other players so well and I don’t think she contributes that much in or on the edge of the box. We never… Read more »
Dont really understand the point about Frida not being a “natural goalscorer” ranks very highly among midfielders and wingers in terms of non penalty goals and even higher if you isolate just midfielders. Its just a brown patch in form as a result of a new season starting.
I meant to say “natural striker”. Hope that at least makes more sense, even if you don’t agree.
Agree that Frida needs a rest. She is out of form but still wants to take all the corners and free kicks and shoot instead of considering options. Last season she had to play every game because we had no one else but we now have several players that could stand in for her as demonstrated by the way the game changed when Vicky came on. Also, and I cannot believe I am saying this, give Wally a break too! The ball is not sticking to her, when she has it she is being caught, and when she tries to… Read more »
Yes, totally agree, Lia looks tired and has for a while.
Also agree with your other remarks.
Good points about maanum she is plainly not a number 10 and constantly gives the ball away, she has been dreadful this season.
Have to really disagree with the comments about Maanum and our midfield. The press and the counterpress was a very large part of why we were succesful today and a large part of how we looked to created channcesMaanum was really important in the press and counterpress and carried out her duties in that regard very well today. Given that players are only in possession of the ball for a short period of time their ability to be impactful out of possession and off the ball is really important and Frida did that very well today. She did lack some… Read more »
What I would love to see is some stats about chances created, turnovers etc. I expect Tim will have them in his analysis piece.
Beth Mead didn’t look 100% fit when she came on, but she still had the presence of mind to draw two players towards her and tee up Russo. It certainly wasn’t Beth’s fault that Russo’s shot was too close to the keeper and ought to have been saved. It also wasn’t Beth’s fault that Stina’s shot hit the post after a magnificent first time through ball. The point is that she came on in the 88th minute and in the next 8 minutes created two very good chances for her team-mates despite looking a bit nervous about getting too physical… Read more »
Meado won’t be 100% yet it was her first proper match in almost a year but what an impact she made! You can see there is an understanding between her and Lessi already brought in from their time as Lionesses I presume.
It was a better match once we put on creative players, relaxed the gameplan, really went for it. I know there is a long term benefit when we get our heads down and work on tactics, there’s also (thinking of Liverpool) a more immediate need to entertain the paying fans. Just to get on my soapbox – we all know there’s something stirring with the Arsenal Women fanbase. We have generational reserves of fans that recent clubs (Chelsea) don’t , and this would appear to be our moment. The Liverpool match was therefore a huge disappointment not because we lost… Read more »