Eidevall: "I have a lot of belief in this squad"

Jonas Eidevall has reiterated his strong belief in our side, despite some missed opportunities to grow our squad size in the winter transfer window. 

"I have a lot of belief in this squad," our head coach said. "We have so many quality players. They have so much potential and we have so much potential in what we can achieve together."

January saw three new additions to north London, alongside farewells to Jordan Nobbs and Mana Iwabuchi, but a congested and complex global transfer market prevented further deals being made. 

"I think it was clear in the window that we needed another forward and we identified targets. I know the club worked very hard but it was a very difficult transfer window. Not to find players who want to play at Arsenal - there is plenty of high-quality - but to find clubs who want to sell quality players in this window. If they release a player, they have a really hard time finding their replacement.

"Without going into details on who our targets were, we searched globally for players and our discussions were in the global market. So it's not just a WSL thing. So that proved tricky. We knew it was going to be hard but it was even harder than we thought.

"Of course, we're disappointed with that, but now we have to look forward and make the best of the situation. I still have a squad with a lot of quality that I believe a lot in. We're short in numbers. We know that can be a potential problem, but we have to work together and be as good as possible to reach our goals.

"We understand that we have a tighter squad, that will need to play a lot of games together. We will need to keep a really high standard and be consistent over that time, even if we don't have that much time to recover between each game. That's a challenge but let's go for the challenge and let's do our very best."

One of the new faces added to our squad in January was Dutch midfielder Victoria Pelova, who impressed in her full debut against Leeds United in the FA Cup.

"Pelova has a lot of qualities that will suit her role here," said Eidevall. "She's very good and comfortable on the ball. She has a great vision in playing through passes. She works hard defensively. She has good balance both in offence and defence when she dribbles or she tackles, which makes her an excellent one-on-one player.

"I think you can see straight away where she's coming into our environment. Of course, she wants to learn our style, but she also brings her own style. She has been confident from day one and I think she has adapted really well and come into our group really well. So I think she's already - even if it's early - at a good level where she can perform for the team."

Eidevall is determined, however, not to revel in what an alternate January transfer window may have looked like. His focus remains in the present. 

"We can't change that now, so now we need to focus on what can give us success right now and that's being able to work really really well together in our squad this season.

"I think you can have results or you can have excuses. I don't think you can do both. I want to try having the results," the boss concluded.