Jonas Eidevall says that Arsenal fans can have a big say in the destination of the Conti Cup on Sunday afternoon at Molineux and their dedication serves as an extra inspiration for his team to win the showpiece final on Sunday.
Arsenal have been posting record crowds all season, home and away, but the campaign has not quite matched up on the pitch. Arsenal will likely dominate Molineux on Sunday afternoon and Eidevall wants to draw on that energy and repay the support.
‘One thing, the fans are very important for creating the belief for the players,’ Eidevall told Arseblog News. ‘Our fans have been so great at that the whole season. Secondly, when we speak about motivation, to win for our fans and the hours they put in travelling and supporting our team, it is for them we need to play, it is for them we need to win.
‘What they are doing for us is so special. If there is something that gives us that extra push it is our supporters. We want to do everything to reward and repay them for the faith they are putting into us and Sunday is a great opportunity for us to do that and we will do our very, very best for them.’
A fortnight ago Arsenal turned in their worst performance of the season in A 3-1 WSL defeat at Stamford Bridge. But they turned in their best performance of the season in the reverse fixture at the Emirates in December. Eidevall insists he hasn’t used either game for motivational messages for the players yet but may well do as the final draws closer.
‘We have been focusing on our processes and how we need to play and how we need to train to get there. Closer to the game, we might have some motivational processes coming in.’
The Gunners turned in a much better performance, particularly in the second half, of their most recent game, a 3-1 win at Aston Villa. Arseblog News asks Eidevall whether that performance represented a breakthrough during what has been, by his own admission, an inconsistent season.
‘I think if you look back from our games since the New Year, I think you can see a clear shift in how we play against low blocks. Our second half against Villa is probably our best 45 minutes against a low block, but I think you can see trends in there, the home game against Everton and the home game against Tottenham.’
We put it to him that the first half of that game was not as bad on second viewing as it felt at the time. ‘There are trends now but not as consistently dominant as we were in that 45 minutes against Villa. That is very pleasing. You are right, the first half is not that bad.
‘When you don’t get the result, it is very hard to get an unbiased view of how the game actually is. You tend to jump to conclusions and all your narrative becomes around the result and you justify that narrative in any way possible and shoehorn it in.
‘That wasn’t the case this time. But we can agree the second half is better than the first half, so there were changes that were necessary. The second half performance was really pleasing. It was a really good step in the right direction against low blocks.’
Arsenal play Chelsea in the Conti Cup Final at Molineux on Sunday at 3pm.
