Arsenal Women boss Jonas Eidevall says he is relishing Friday night’s clash with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. The Gunners trail Chelsea by three points at the top of the table making this a crunch league encounter.
Eidevall says these are games he really relishes and he and the team are looking forward to pitting their wits against the defending champions.
‘For me, the games against other top teams are great occasions. That is one of the reasons I love working in football at this level. It is going to bring the best out of both teams.
‘Margins and details are going to matter and we are going to have to fight so hard for every inch to try and get a competitive advantage in the game and everything we do will matter, I honestly love that.’
The Gunners were 4-1 winners in the reverse fixture in December at Emirates Stadium and Eidevall says he and his team will need to produce the same level of performance to emerge victorious in West London on Friday.
‘We have had a few of those really, really good performances in the last two seasons but I am under no illusion we need a performance like that again on Friday to win the game. Some games require external motivation, some games the motivation is already there and you need to focus on the process.’
A defeat would leave Arsenal six points behind Chelsea but the Swede is refusing to countenance what defeat would mean for his team’s title ambitions, ‘I don’t think like that, it is not a thought that is in my head. My only thought is ‘what do we need to do to maximise our way to win the game. That is where 100% of my focus is.’
The teams will face one another in the Conti Cup Final in two weeks time too and Eidevall admits that playing teams in quick succession adds another dimension to planning.
‘This is what we do in Europe knockout stages all the time, you play an opponent, you need to learn from the first game and then you need to take that into account for the second game.
‘But you also have to take into account ‘what did they learn? What are they happy with what are they not happy with from the first game?’ That is really the interesting thing, to understand what you want to adapt but also to understand what they are going to adapt.
‘Hopefully we have a good idea about that and can make it a real advantage to play them twice but I don’t believe in having too many secrets. We are not at that level where we can say ‘we can only be 90% in the first game so we can be 100% for the second game.’ We need to be at our very best in both these games.’
The two games will be the last that see Emma Hayes come head to head with Arsenal, where she was a coach some years ago. Hayes will leave Chelsea at the end of the season to take the USWNT job and Eidevall admits he will miss competing with Hayes.
‘Emma is a very, very intelligent person to have a conversation with about the game and I have really enjoyed those conversations when I have met her in occasions when it has not been on the sidelines.
‘Sometimes you miss that because you have a rivalry because you have two managers that really want to win for their teams. That is how it should be. It doesn’t mean you cannot communicate and learn and exchange ideas outside.
‘Hopefully I won’t miss that and will still be able to do that when she is in her other role. What I am going to miss is the competition. I like to compete. It is never easy against a team she is coaching. They will always be flexible and have a plan for any scenario and players that are so dedicated to win the game.
‘I just like the challenge of that, to play against the best. That is probably what I am going to miss.’
He is a good orator; keeps his listener engaged without substance . But I would measure this guy by what he achieves on the pitch & so far he is consistently inconsistent and is clueless when the chips are down.
“This is what we do in Europe knockout stages all the time, you play an opponent, you need to learn from the first game and then you need to take that into account for the second game. ‘But you also have to take into account ‘what did they learn? What are they happy with what are they not happy with from the first game?’ That is really the interesting thing, to understand what you want to adapt but also to understand what they are going to adapt.” Yup. We’ve beaten Chelsea more or less the same way twice, I don’t… Read more »
Fun Gunner makes an interesting point about relative learning curves … and imho we can learn more than Chelsea, we know their key threats, eg Lauren James, i can foresee how we may keep her at bay and break down their defence and their moral, if our defence and midfield are solid and we play Blackstenius, Russo, Mead and Foorde up front, they will struggle against us, i predict 1-3 in our favour
Yes, let’s not overthink the game and just let our players play. The secret we have this time is the 12th player! When have Chelsea ever allowed 6000 Arsenal fans into a WSL encounter?
I think Chelsea away in WSL has only ever been at small grounds before today. kingsmeadow and before that Staines Town’s ground.
Exactly they kept it small on purpose because they knew whatever the allocation is Arsenal fans would probably fulfil it.
Let’s see if we can take 2 of the quadruple away from our Emma in the next couple of weeks as a parting gift! Is there about to be a mass exodus from West London at the season end?