Jonas: “If someone slips, are you ready?”

Ice skater Steven Bradbury was in last place going into the final corner of the 2002 Winter Olympics 1,000 meter short track speed skating event.

But, when all of the his opponents slipped, he was in the right position to capitalise.

That’s the moment that Jonas Eidevall’s assistant coach, Aaron D’Antino, has pointed to as we continue to challenge for the Barclays Women’s Super League title.

A win against Leicester City on Sunday would see us close the gap to three points to leaders Chelsea, while Manchester City are also in action against West Ham United.

“I think it’s about the mentality to always do your best, to never give up,” Jonas said in his pre-match press conference at Sobha Realty Training Centre on Friday morning.

“My assistant coach Aaron, who’s from Australia, he showed me the video of the Australian short skater in the Winter Olympics that was last in the final, and then everybody slips and he’s going first over the line. The thing is, are you ready? If someone else slips, are you ready, or have you already given up because you didn’t think that was going to happen?

“I think it’s a mindset thing and that’s why it’s so important to always do your best. You can’t really control what other teams do and there are a lot of external factors that you can’t control either, but what you can control is your own actions.

“In business, they call that to have return on luck, to make sure that you position yourself so that, if you get in that moment, will your return be a lot? That’s what I think we need to work with.”

Following this weekend’s game at Emirates Stadium, we will end the season with trips to Everton and Manchester City before finally hosting Brighton & Hove Albion at Meadow Park.

“Secondly, I think, for all that we’re trying to build, this is also really important in being the first chapter of the new season, so when we speak about being consistent, when we speak about being the team that we want to be, this is an excellent opportunity for us in all the games that we have left to both work and to showcase that, so for me we have so much motivation here in the last games of the season,” Jonas added.

To read every word of his press conference, click here.