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Eidevall praises mentality after comeback win

Jonas Eidevall was full of praise for our team's mentality as we staged a dramatic comeback at Emirates Stadium to beat Aston Villa 2-1 at the death. 

Two goals in stoppage time from Katie McCabe and Alessia Russo secured our first three points in the Barclays Women's Super League this season.

"After the game, I always feel a little bit tired!" said Eidevall. "But most of all, I feel very happy. Happy that we were rewarded for a strong performance - that's important."

"It's moments like that - you don't buy them in the cinema, right? It's the unpredictability of football. There are no guarantees in football, but there's hope. There's belief.

"It's those 5-10 minutes of a game where everybody else forgets about what's going on in life apart from that. It's just this game here and now. It's the hope that we will get that goal and end this day happy and today it was a happy story. So, of course, you need to be happy with that."

Beth Mead also made her return after almost a year-long absence from the pitch and the impact from our number nine was instantaneous in setting up Alessia Russo for the winner. Our head coach spoke of his pride upon seeing her recovery. 

"I think there are so many things going on behind the scenes that you're not going to be aware of like the hard work coming back from an injury like that.

"But also on a personal level, Beth had such a hard year with her mum passing away. She's been a great character. I think the team has been so supportive of her as well and to see her coming onto the pitch here now, knowing everything she's gone through and knowing all the hard work that she has done - I'm so proud of her."

After McCabe's thumping shot from a tight angle drew us level in the 92nd minute, our Gunners still weren't satisfied. After a late equaliser from Cloe Lacasse earned us a point against Manchester United last weekend, our squad were determined to go one better this time around. 

"That's mentality all the way through. Like are we happy to just get a 1-1 at home? No, of course not. We can't be. That can't be us. That can't be what we're aiming for. We need to go for three points and I think that we were all very aligned on that. It's three points or nothing."

Before the October international break, our squad heads on the road to face Bristol City next Sunday evening and Eidevall is adamant that this momentum will continue.

"We started the fire now. Now we need to keep it going. It's a really important week and it's a really important game to do that."

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