Arsenal coach Jonas Eidevall says that Beth Mead “blew my mind” when he arrived at the club. The England winger is on top form again this summer and a hot favourite to win the player of the season award.
Mead has scored in her last five consecutive WSL games now, reaching double figures for league goals for the first time since signing for the club in 2017.
When asked whether this is the best form of Mead’s career, Eidevall preferred to focus on what the future holds for a player who has played more minutes for Arsenal this season than any player other than Katie McCabe and Kim Little.
“To be honest, I don’t know enough about Beth’s early years to make that comparison but I told Beth a couple of weeks ago, sometimes when you come into a team as a coach and you have seen players playing on video and you have an idea of them but she’s one of those I saw her, I saw positive things in her but she absolutely blew my mind with her qualities when I came here.
“I don’t think she has reached her peak yet either, I hope this year is just another stepping stone to greater things.” Eidevall was enthusiastic about his team’s performances of late too, especially in the wake of a disappointing FA Cup semi-final exit against Chelsea.
“The Villa performance was one of the better ones for us this season, I think it showed a good reaction to how we played against Chelsea with strong performances against Everton and Villa.
“It is up to us now to keep being consistent with those performances in our last two games.” As ever, Eidevall also said that he didn’t watch Chelsea’s 1-0 win at Birmingham on Sunday.
The victory meant that Chelsea just have to beat Manchester United at home on the final day to be confirmed as champions. “I didn’t watch it, I am cautious about keeping my energy in the right place.
“For me it was much more important to see Everton v Tottenham (which took place at the same time) because we play Tottenham this week. It’s not an exciting game for league positions for us but it gives us a lot of information and that will be important for us this week.”
Absolutely love Beth – and she’s been blinding this season.
If Jonas is right what will Meado do next season?
Back to her Sunderland scoring rate hopefully!
You know a player is good when Barcelona decide to kick her out of the game.
It will take a monumental effort by someone else in the last two matches to prevent Beth being player of the season and most improved player of the season too!
She seems to be the player that most exemplifies how he wants to play. High intensity, quick-minded and relentless.