Harvey - We’re over our blip and raring to go

By Joe Brewin

Laura Harvey insists Arsenal Ladies have put their difficult run of form behind them - and will be even better once they return to home soil.

Last year's treble winners recorded an impressive 3-0 win at Bristol on Wednesday night after enduring a disappointing run of one win in their previous four matches.

All five of those matches have been played away from home, though, and Harvey believes her side will be back to their best soon.

“I thought it was one of our best performances in a long time,” Harvey told Arsenal.com. “We were really happy to score three goals but probably more important at this moment in time was to keep a clean sheet.

“We have such high expectations at this Club that a draw and one defeat is seen as a terrible run. That is something we have to live with because we are Arsenal Ladies Football Club and that comes with its own expectations. To go out on a fantastic pitch and perform at the level we did was very satisfying.

“I cannot wait to get back to Boreham Wood, though. Playing at Bristol is nice because the pitch is fantastic but we love playing at Meadow Park. Teams fear coming there because they know what they are going to be up against.

“We are looking forward to getting back there when we have a big game against Chelsea [in the Continental Cup] - we have some scores to settle. To get them back at Boreham Wood would be nice.”

Despite Arsenal’s recent run, Harvey says she always knew her players’ quality would prevail in the end.

“It is part of my job to tell the players that they don't become bad overnight,” she said. “They were treble winners last year for a reason - they are good players.

“I can go on about the standard of pitches forever but we know when we play on good pitches that we are hard to beat. When we play on good surfaces we are always a handful.

“Fair play to Chelsea in the [FA Cup] semi-final because they kept us out but anybody who was at the game knows that we created a number of chances and could have won the game by a silly amount if things had gone our way.”