Jonas Eidevall and Emma Hayes will pit their wits against each other for the final time in Sunday’s FA Women’s Continental Tyres League Cup final at Molineux Stadium.
Tickets are on general sale for the game against Chelsea, which kicks off at 3pm - grab your tickets now.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference at Sobha Realty Training Centre on Friday morning, Jonas reflected on his previous meetings with Hayes, who will depart Chelsea at the end of the season to take up the role of head coach of the United States.
“I've really enjoyed the games from a challenge perspective,” he said. “I think that that has been really exciting to play against our teams, but rivalries in elite football, they will continue to come and when one ends, another one emerges. I don't think there will be any shortage of rivalries in the WSL.
“I would always say everything is more important for us. Of course, the most important thing for us is that we win. So, from my point of view Arsenal is always the most important thing and Arsenal winning is the most important thing.”
We were unable to win last time we met Chelsea at Stamford Bridge earlier in March, but don’t need to look much further back to recall our impressive 4-1 victory against the Blues at Emirates Stadium previously in the season.
We also pipped Hayes' team to the Conti Cup last season when we ran out 3-1 victors at Selhurst Park, and Jonas feels that those results mean there shouldn't be any hangover or lack of confidence heading into this game against a side who have reached the semi-finals of the Champions League.
“I don't think there is any mental obstacle for us saying that we that we can't beat Chelsea because we've done so on numerous occasions,” Jonas explained. “But there also shouldn't be any complacency going in and saying like we're playing against a very very good team and they've been beating us also across numerous occasions.
"It’s really about coming down to the best team on the day. Preparation plays a huge part in that and that's what we're focusing on.”
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
