Arsenal Women boss Jonas Eidevall has talked up the partnership between Alessia Russo and Stina Blackstenius after the pair started together in last weekend’s 5-0 win over Bristol City.
Blackstenius did not score but Beth Mead and Alessia Russo both helped themselves to a brace each and Eidevall says they benefitted from the work of Blackstenius ahead of them. The club currently has a new contract offer on the table for the Swede, whose current deal expires this summer, and the player is weighing it up.
‘I thought they (Russo and Blackstenius) played well together and the whole team played well together. That is a partnership that gives us some really good advantages, we have other partnerships in the 9 and 10 position that gives us other things, that is a good thing this squad has that we can choose, sometimes depending on the opponent, what fits the best.
‘In the game against Bristol we could really see how much Stina did in the quiet, so to speak. Almost all goal scoring opportunities we create is Stina creating space in front of the back line with her running and her positioning. That is such an important part in football, especially when you are playing against a low block.
‘I think that worked very, very well, not only for Alessia but for the wide forwards as well to have Stina creating a lot of space in front of the back line for them that they could exploit in second phases.’
The club has sold over 40,000 tickets for Sunday’s game against Leicester at the Emirates, a fact not lost on Eidevall, who is still hoping for further sales ahead of the game. ‘ I think it’s a really good sign of how strong the support is for the team in getting ticket sales like this.
‘I think sometimes we have to zoom out and did we think that this was realistic two and a half years ago? I don’t think we really thought that so it shows how big the growth has been and what amazing work both the team and the club has been doing in order to bring it to this point together with the supporters.
‘Being able to sell more than 40,000 tickets for this game here I think is a big achievement, but hopefully we can sell more. There is still time and every single one of Arsenal’s supporters that wants to make the game will make a difference for us, so hopefully there will be plenty more people.’
The game kicks off at 2pm on Sunday at the Emirates and will be streamed live on Arsenal.com.
Come on, Stina Ballerina. You know you want to sign for us really. Where else will you get thousands of fans singing your song? Selling over 40,000 tickets for a game with nothing riding on it is impressive. I suspect the reason for staging this game at the Emirates was as a kind of straw in the wind – to see how many fans would come to support the team at a run-of-the-mill league game without a particularly strong marketing push. The fact that the club are streaming it live is fantastic, too. JE does not look well in the… Read more »
Stina, I…and I am sure , I’m one of many…hope you can sort it out and sign for Arsenal. You are a wonderful player and so low profile. Each Arsenal player is a wonderful player. Fair and playing as a team never loosing the purpose of football .That’s why you so fit in …
Even as I don’t live in the U.K , you just hope…one day I’ll be there supporting you all, and I hope you are still wearing your Arsenal shirt!