Arsenal completed an astonishing second half comeback to beat Leicester City 6-2 at the King Power on Sunday evening. Leicester led 2-0 at half-time but a blitz of goals from Cloe Lacasse, Alessia Russo, Caitlin Foord, Victoria Pelova, Stina Blackstenius and Lina Hurtig gave Arsenal the points. Jonas Eidevall spoke to the press post-match, the first two questions are from Arseblog News.
On what he said at half time…
We changed very little from the game plan and the structure we were playing. You are playing with a knife’s edge when you play Leicester because the one v one situations that are created up top, if you protect the ball and turn with it, like in the first goal when Caitlin Foord turns and manages that situation and she switches the ball to Cloe Lacasse and we score and everything opens up.
If you turn the situation over, they leave a lot of players forward and they will punish you. That is what we spoke about at half-time, that if a team chooses to ID mark us, it’s going to be one v one situations and we can’t change that because we have the same number of players. What we can change is see how much space we have in the one v one situation and where we want the space to be.
Ultimately, we need to be able to handle those situations and if they are better than us, we have to accept that but it wasn’t good enough in the first half, I think we would all agree with that. We kept the same structure and the same context but with better execution and I think we did that. It helps getting goals and energy but I think some of the attacking football we played in the second half was great to watch.
I thought it was a great representation of the way Arsenal play football and the midfield with Pelova and Cooney-Cross were phenomenal today running the play with the ball, movement and being brave on the ball. We had a lot of speed and creativity in our forward four. We probably had just as many opportunities that we didn’t score as we did, which is very impressive away from home.
On his assertion a couple of weeks ago that ‘we are better when there is energy in the game’…
It’s what happens when you start winning your one v one duels, that was our way into the game today. When we started doing that, we started being successful and having belief in that, it gave us confidence and made players think, ‘give me the ball again.’ We turned that situation from shying away from it in the first half to dealing with it much better in the second half. We swang momentum, which was very nice.
On Kyra Cooney-Cross’ performance…
It is about what you do with the time, nobody is really waiting for the chance, you work really hard for it. That is what being a professional footballer is about so you’re ready when the opportunity arises but it’s also the hard part because it is easy to not apply yourself well in training. Kyra has been great, she has had illnesses and small injuries that have disrupted her rhythm a little bit. Nobody external knows about that but it takes a little bit more time and she has had to settle. So even if she has made those match day squads, the journey to those match day squads might not have been idea. But it is great to see her playing well now and it is also great to see Victoria Pelova play 90 minutes in central midfield. These kind of games are perfect for her where she gets into a lot of one v one situations because she is so good with her movements and being able to get past her opponent.
On having six different goal scorers…
When you see the players coming on, Stina, Lina, Beth and how involved they are in creating goal scoring opportunities, that is something I hope we can use during the season that we have starters and finishers in our forward setup because we want to have a lot of energy while we are playing. Sometimes that means fresh legs.
On the competition that is emerging in central midfield…
It was because of injuries today, given how well they played in midfield today it was a good choice. We had Kim, Wally, Jen, Codina and Viv was not feeling perfect in the warm-up, so we had five players out that we couldn’t field today. That was really strong of us to miss those five players and have this strong a performance.
The importance of momentum in the game…
We kept the structure but we challenged the application on what we needed to do, we did like we usually do, we looked at the clips and looked at how it looks and see where are the spaces. Sometimes you get a different experience, both as a coach and as a player. You might perceive that there is not a lot of space and you might need to see that, no, there is a lot of space and we spoke about it. Once I know there is I can trust that. But it wasn’t a Hollywood style half time teamtalk, I don’t believe in that anymore, you can’t just have those only motivational speeches, you need to be task oriented.
On Leicester City…
They are a brave football team with a clear identity, they stick to their guns and play their way and I always respect that. That helps with recruiting players and developing players and teams over time. They’re way of playing and they play differently to many other teams in the league. I always think that is a good thing when you choose your game model that you expose other teams to something they are not exposed to on a regular basis. It is a clever way of doing that and it fits their players well.
1.Zinsberger; 15.McCabe, 28.Ilestedt, 3.Wubben-Moy, 7.Catley; 21.Pelova, 32.Cooney-Cross (16.Maritz 90+6); 24.Lacasse (9.Mead ‘66), 12.Maanum (25.Blackstenius ‘66), 19.Foord (17.Hurtig ‘66); 23.Russo (22.Kuhl 90+1).
Unused: 11.Miedema, 14.D’Angelo, 40.Williams, 53.Lia.
In italics it should be 6-2…
Deadlines! Scoreline was probably 5-2 when Tim began typing the article 🙂 6th goal was very deep into injury time.
You can’t use “deadline” and 5-2 in the same sentence. Somehow, it’s traumatic.
Kuhl seems a weapon.
Absolutely brilliant from the girls to come back from a tough first half to win that game. Brilliant mettle. We’ve needed that a lot this season given our slow start. But a really comfortable game will do wonders for us. So girls, please! A few thoughts as usual: 1. Our defence is embarrassing. We had all summer to get a RB and how we somehow failed at that is beyond me. We now have Katie playing there (an indictment on Maritz and her lack of progress btw) which means we are missing Katie’s strengths in other areas. Also, Amanda Ilestedt… Read more »
That easy game at Brighton who just beat City , you mean???
I said hopefully we have an easier day. That’s me expressing hope that the day will be easier. Where did I predict an easy game?
Frida is quickly getting into “I’ll pay for her Eurostar ticket if PSG want her that much” territory. Few worldies last season & now thinks that entitles her to shoot from anywhere outside the penalty area regardless of how many team mates she’s got in better positions. Less said about Manu the better, can’t wait to upgrade her position next year, be that with either Earps or Roebuck. Pelova was fantastic, that feels like it could be her break out moment cause she’s been threatening that type of performance since we signed her & that ball for Hurtig was just… Read more »
To be sitting in second place, just 3 points behind Chelsea, after what has been a really shaky start to the season is very commendable.
Hopefully, the defense can be sorted out and we can push Chelsea all the way this season. Would be nice to stop them from going 5 in a row.
Having seen some highlights, the only difference I saw in the first half was that we missed a hatful of chances and the opponents took their couple.
There were multiple chances to expose Leicester’s high line not taken in the first half, that is all they sharpened up at half-time, they prioritised playing into space instead of playing into feet and voila!
No! It wasn’t simply about the missed chances; our display was VERY poor. At a point, I thought that the ladies had conspired to ‘throw the game😙😊!!’ Just as they did in some of the phases in the last game against Bristol City, lots of stray passes. Again, it was hurtful to see. It was as if they lacked motivation. So glad that they made up for it by scoring 6 goals!
Second half the forwards made better decisions and created a combined ruthlessness with 6 goals. It wasn’t there in the first half, could have scored 2/3 in the first 45 with better choices. Have to say I find Maanum frustrating, maybe she’s going through a rough patch but she plays with blinkers on, as soon as she’s within 20-30 yards she shoots regardless of others being better positioned. 0 assists with a low % of shots on target so far in the WSL really makes her performances standout. I wonder whether she has license from Jonas to take a more… Read more »
Jonas likes her shooting because it forces defenders to come out and meet her but, she is certainly doing it too much. She has to vary it up so that she can slip the ball in behind on occasion. Otherwise defenders won’t come out to meet her because they know what is coming.
Hello Tim. Do you think Jonas has what it takes to dominate the WSL when Emma Hayes departs or Arsenal should be looking for someone else? I feel there might be a ‘dominance void’ and we need to be there to step in, or what do you think? Cheers!😊.
There are many good things to celebrate about this week’s performances. The succession planning for central midfield is turning out even better than I hoped. The future is secure with LV, KCC and KK. And the spirit and dynamism of the second-half display against Leicester was exciting and uplifting – don’t always want a boring one nil to the Arsenal! We do still have too many defensive lapses. I do think the combination of Katie at RB and Amanda at RCB is vulnerable to attacks down the left wing. Katie doesn’t play the role as a conventional full back and… Read more »
LV? I meant VP!
All the spell corrections got rid of the “non” in non-negligeable….
Non-negligible
What’s with all the hate against Frida? She carried this team last season. Cut her some slack.
That was a great second half. We could have scored a couple in the first half if not for poor decision making. I agree with the comments that the defence still needs a lot of work and McCabe right back, Illestedt right centre back leaves spaces to be exploited. Maanum was improved in her earlier games but need to very when t shot and when to pass. Pelova was outstanding as was our speed of play in the second half. As was said, we are a far better team when we have that sort of energy