Arsenal kick off their WSL season with a home game against Manchester City at Emirates Stadium on Sunday. The game immediately brings Arsenal face-to-face with Vivianne Miedema, whose contract expired with Arsenal during the summer. The Dutch forward joined Manchester City and will line up against her former club on Sunday.
Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall says there are no hard feelings between him, the club or the player. ‘Viv has such a great history in the club, we wish her the best, I wish her the best. I truly hope that she has a really successful season, she deserves that. One of the big problems for us with letting her go is that she plays for one of our competitors. We know that she is a very strong opponent, we need to focus on our part during the game.’
Asked whether Arsenal have an advantage by knowing the player well, Eidevall was unconvinced. ‘In football, there are not many secrets when you see City play or you see us play, you get what you see. City is very distinct in the way they play, they have a clear game model and they are very good at executing that. It comes to individual players too, it’s not so much knowing what they are going to do because that is not a secret. It is about being good enough in the moment to stop that.
‘With Viv, it works both ways, yes we know a lot about her but she knows a lot about us, it is going to be about who applies that knowledge the best. They have a lot of attacking talent on the pitch, so do we. They will have 11 players on the pitch, so will we. We play against City a lot and we know it is hard to get control of these games. We know that is important on the ball and off the ball, then it comes down to who has the real quality in those moments.’
Asked by Jamie Spanghar, of the Halfway Line and our new Arsenal Women Arsecast shows debuting this season, about whether Arsenal’s 1-0 defeat to Hacken on Wednesday illustrated continued struggles against low defensive blocks, Eidevall admitted it was a step back.
‘If we take the Hacken game, the front five had played 0 minutes together, so in every game we find out things about each other. About movement, about how we can co-operate, what preferences players have and how we get the best out of that but we need to learn quickly. It comes back to the question earlier about progress, this season our end product cannot just be ‘progress’, but our daily mindset has to be about progress, we have to be curious, learn, get better every day and find out all the small things to make things tick better. It is work in motion.
‘It would be easy if progress is linear, I think Hacken was a step backwards for us when the game looked like that. That is what I meant when I said before we know what we did in that game and we very much know what we need to do better. It was a step backwards but sometimes you take a step backwards so that you can race forwards.’
Meanwhile, Gunners defender Amanda Ilestedt confirmed the birth of her daughter Mila on August 30 on her Instagram page. Eidevall says the player will return but only when she feels ready to do so.
‘We are so happy from Amanda and Rainer, her partner and their very cute little baby Mila. Right now, they need to stay together as a family. Of course there is a plan to return to play, Amanda wants to return to play but we need to be guided about what she is feeling and when she is ready to return to the UK and start training, then we will be ready to welcome her.’
Will be good to see Viv again. Just hope she doesn’t enjoy the game too much.
Arseblog headline in 15 years:
Like mother like daughter – Exciting Swedish youngster Mila Ilestedt signs for Arsenal….
I think if Arsenal lose this game, and Viv is key in City’s victory…..I struggle to see Jonas staying on for much longer. That might be the tipping point for him.
I honestly feel it’s unhelpful to post such a comment in advance of a key game.
Concur
Seriously?! This personalisation of everything is on Jonas is just tediously simplistic. As stated at the time the contract ending was mutual, Viv wanted a new challenge and the club (not just Jonas) thought she didn’t fit in with the playing style and there was not the budget to keep her as a bit part player.
In any case we’ve got Mariona instead who is just as big a talent.
I’m not necessarily blaming Jonas for the Viv situation. I’m just saying there’s a lot of disquiet in the fanbase about Jonas’ position (rightly so given how poor performances were last season) & it could just be the thing to tip it over to where his position becomes untenable.
So yes, it is a serious comment 😀
Jonas has improved against the top teams vastly. To ignore that is baffling.
We will improve on low blocks.. certain
Sorry, what am I ignoring ? I said performances were poor last season…are you really suggesting that taking the season as a whole you disagree with that comment ?
Taking 9 points off Chelski and Citeh constitutes 3 excellent performances out of 4.
I’d agree West Ham and Spuds away were poor performances but to brand the whole season as poor is not factual.
Suggesting we only had two poor performances, now that’s not factual….
This
We generally do ok against the top teams it’s the average defence minded ones we find difficult to break down!
Failure to qualify for the cl again and he has to go.
Everyone knows how City play, but Jess Park is excelling very well in the middle, and particularly in the center where Arsenal usually like to carry the ball in the game when it’s against them. There are many qualities there and here, it’s going to be a great game. A draw with goals would be good for both teams, but if Arsenal win it will give a boost to the competition (WSL) and in the last game against Hacken (WCL). I’m happy for Amanda’s daughter, I’m glad everything is okay. I hope Viv does very well in the competitions she… Read more »
You see this is what I am talking about! Chelsea had a very tough game against Villa. Still they won thanks to a moment of magic and good goalkeeping/defence. We dont have a player who can score those kind of goals. I have said this so many times but where is our cheat-player? All I hear is ”Jonas out” but he cant score the goals, thats up to the players. I know this might be an unpopulair opinion but maybe our squad isnt as good as a lot of people think? We have a pretty weak defence and doesnt have… Read more »
I agree about the lack of speed. Back in April 2021 you would have found me on this site singing the praises of Jule Brand after seeing her international debut as a substitute in a 5-2 win over Australia. Wanted us to sign her then, and I still do!
I agree with you, but Arsenal has these fast players. Kafaji is one of them, ViV Lia too, I would give another vote of confidence to Khull who has quick and efficient dribbling, this business of preparing the player is complicated, you have to give them confidence, sometimes the pearl is there but needs to be used for the game.
Jonas is responsible for the training, formation, preparation, and team selection. The lack of development on these fronts (but overproduction on excuses) has a lot of people asking questions like- is this manager simply overconfident, often to the detriment of the expensively assembled squad?
I’m expecting a tight game, all the spotlight will be on Miedema but I feel the real danger could be Jess Park, it’ll require a disciplined midfield to not allow City to run through the midfield. This is also a real test of the defence which hasn’t started too well. I wouldn’t be surprised if Wubben Moy is picked in this game to keep Shaw quiet.
I wonder if we will see some long ball action here to quell the high press and not put undue pressure on our playing out, Foord and Mead out wide, Caldentey/Russo behind Russo/Stina?