Every word of Jonas' pre-Liverpool presser

Jonas Eidevall has held his first Women's Super League press conference of the new season, as we prepare for Sunday's test against Liverpool.

The boss was quizzed on record-breaking attendances at Emirates Stadium, how our new arrivals are settling in, the progress Beth Mead is making towards full fitness and much more. 

Here's everything he had to say:

on another huge crowd at Emirates Stadium…

When I speak about momentum for the club, I think attracting large audiences to Emirates Stadium is certainly a massively important part of that. I think it's part of the club's longer-term plans to move more and more games to Emirates Stadium and, of course, in order to do so, we need to have the interest there. So it's great to see that we have that. 

on continually breaking attendance records…

To be honest, we want to have a crowd like we had against Wolfsburg which was a sold-out game, so there are no more records to break. We want consistency. I think we are moving away from the idea that it's a one-off to sell out the big stadium. What we want for the sustainability and the growth of the game is to have consistency in selling out big stadiums. That's the next step for women's football. That's the next step for the WSL. That's why it's pleasing to see more clubs putting more games at bigger stadiums and investing in advertising to get more people to the games as well.

on his excitement ahead of the season…

Of course, otherwise, I shouldn't be here! It's a new season. Everything is possible when you start a new season and it's a part of how you live football. While many people celebrate the start of a new year, we celebrate the start of a new season. We wish each other a happy new season like you did. We want to bring all the energy, passion and quality on the pitch together.

on Katie McCabe’s new deal…

It's been really nice and important for us to see how we have been able to secure our top talent to stay at the club. I think Katie had an amazing season last season. She showed her versatility, but even more importantly, she showed her quality as a football player.

I think when she gets the balance between playing with the right amount of aggression and the right amount of cleverness, she's a world-class player. She gets that balance right, more often than not.

on Beth Mead’s return to fitness…

She has now returned to train fully with us, which is really, really good. So that means she can be in contention for the matchday squad and even at the weekend, she might be able to play minutes. We still have another training session to do but she's getting very, very close.

on whether we may see Mead play against Liverpool…

We may. 

on Alessia Russo’s signing…

It’s really nice having her here. We can see in training what we saw when she was playing for the opposition and for England - those qualities she can bring us on the pitch. That adds both quality and depth to our squad so we are really excited about that.

on whether Kyra Cooney-Cross is a player for the future…

I think whenever you bring in a new player - if that's Alessia Russo, or Kyra Cooney-Cross or Amanda Ilestedt - there’s always going to be a little bit of adjustment time. That is all very natural because you're going to find a new city to live in, you're going to form new relationships on the pitch, you're going to adapt to a new club and its culture, its game ideas, and so on. 

Sometimes that goes quickly, sometimes it takes a little bit longer. The factor that we have with all the players we have brought in is that we believe in them long-term. We see that they have qualities to bring to the team and Kyra has some tremendous qualities, particularly in how she passes the football, which I think is going to be really good for Arsenal. 

But because of when she came to us, we haven't been able to play her in any games yet. At the moment, she has just been able to practice and most of the practices have been without any large numbers. This was the first day that we had the whole squad back for her to train with. So, of course, we brought her in so she can have an impact immediately, but if that's this weekend or if it comes a little bit later, we have to wait and see. 

on his expectations for the season…

I expect it to be the most competitive WSL season that there has ever been. I think a lot of squads have been strengthening. I think Liverpool is a very competitive side and they've played a very competitive schedule in preseason against a lot of top teams. I think their performances have been good in these games. So we're playing as a tough opposition. 

Today, we did our ninth training session in four months with a whole squad, so that's where we're coming from. Tomorrow, we're gonna do our 10th training session and we need to get all our basics and all our relationships right on the pitch, in order to be able to go fully on Sunday.

We expect a tough opponent and we know we're coming from the last four months with not a lot of time together. So we need to cherish all those moments and we need to get the basics right on Sunday.

on playing games at Meadow Park and Emirates Stadium…

I think that's part of the growth for us and the process we are in towards having two home grounds. As always, I try to see things in a positive way and I think we've had some brilliant nights and days at Meadow Park with the fans creating a great atmosphere there.

So for us, we will always love that but our long-term goal is to play as many games as possible at Emirates Stadium.

On how the World Cup increased the interest in women’s football…

I think it really goes hand-in-hand with the growth of the women's game, both at a club level and a national team level. With increasing attention and increasing audiences, it's well-deserved because the product is great.

on the fitness of Wubben-Moy, Maritz and Codina… 

Yeah, so Lotte has returned to full training. Lina is able to train as well. Noelle picked up a slight knock in the game with Switzerland, but we need to assess her. She's not ruled out of Sunday, but we need to assess her tomorrow in order to see her status.

on Laia Codina’s qualities and her being a right-footed left-sided central defender…

Left-footed central defenders, there’s not a lot to start with. It’s a short list when you look at it from a global perspective. But you quite quickly see whether a player is of the quality you want or if they are not.

One standout thing Laia has is the way she passes the ball, she’s a really good passer. She has some really good leadership qualities given her age and she puts a real pride in defending. Those are three key qualities we saw in her.

She has a really ambitious personality. She really wants to grow and take the next step as a player in her career and that’s the mentality we really want at Arsenal. I think that it is going to be a really good fit.

on whether we tried to sign another right back…

I think I said we were in the market, not necessarily in only one position. But I think we have options like we have seen before with other players being able to play right fullback as well, especially in the way that we play that position, I see a number of solutions that we have in-house to do so, so that's good.

And for the first time, in a very long time, I think we have good competition in the squad from a numbers perspective as well.

I think this might be the first time for a very, very long time that I might have to make a decision on our squad selection because we can only select 20 players and I think that that's a great situation to to be in because that's the healthy competition that we need. 

on whether squad depth has been the difference between us and Chelsea…

I think it's making it too simple to put it like like that. But if I'm just thinking about what's the next step for us, that has definitely been important for us. We have seen that in both seasons here that we've needed deeper squads, more competition, and different roles and responsibilities, so we can have more flexible approaches to different game states and to find more solutions during the season. So just looking internally at us, this has definitely been much needed for us. 

on the importance of sticking to key principles...

I think you can always choose when things, even if you think it's a challenge or things go against you, you can choose to be the victim. And you can choose to blame for it or you can take responsibility and find solutions for it.

And I think that's the important part when you're a leader for it, it is to accept what is happening. Your role is not to blame, your role is not to find excuses to not perform, your role is to find solutions and to help the team to find solutions for it. And sometimes it's easy to be a leader when you're in success for it because then you're only saying the nice things or you can just roll along with it. But in tougher times still need to stand up for your values, for your principles and that's when you galvanise them.

That's when people really understand that these things have value, and that these things are not going to change. Even if we lose a game, even if we don't achieve what we want to do, these things are still going to remain the same. That’s always a key learning for any team when you go through that, that you can feel like okay, this is going to remain like constant principles for it even when the weather is blowing and the conditions are tough, we're going to remain, so that's important.

on how much more competitive the WSL has become… 

I never think about it that way. My only mentality is that you prepare 100 per cent for your opponent, and you do your absolute best in preparation, in execution, every single second on the pitch. I've never in my life thought about any game in football as an easy game, so I'm not going to do that this season either.

on whether Alessia Russo has pressure to perform and whether she’s been set any targets for goals… 

I’m not setting goal targets, I’ve never done that for any player. Is there pressure playing for a club like Arsenal? Of course there is. With all the history that we have, and all expectations we have, of course, there is pressure, but that's a privilege.

We have that pressure because a lot of people care about what we're doing. And we want to be ambitious as well. And we're trying to create a culture where we help each other, where we work really hard together and where we can thrive under that pressure.