The bulk of our squad returned from international duty on Friday as we prepare for a London derby in the fifth round of the Women's FA Cup this weekend.
Speaking to the media ahead of Sunday’s clash, Jonas Eidevall was asked what he’s learnt from our previous battles with Chelsea and how we will nullify their in-form attacking threat.
“It’s the beauty of the game, you play against each other and you evolve,” said Eidevall in Friday’s press conference. “Both teams have played different games since we last played and also evolved, so it’s never going to be exactly the same game, but there is an element in it that we have a lot of good views to use against them on Sunday.
“I’ve said it before, I think it’s much more in these games about trying to create as many situations as possible that are favourable for your team. It’s so easy when you play good teams like Chelsea to focus on what they’re doing well and their strengths and try to nullify them in those moments and situations, but the best way to play is to make sure those situations never happen at all."
Reflecting on our start to 2023 as a whole, Eidevall had the following to say: "For me, I look at the difference between performances and results, so I know we haven’t won in the league in 2023, but the two games against Chelsea at home and West Ham away were two good performances.
"I felt that when it happened and I felt it after when I reviewed it and saw it in the stats as well, but then the City game in the league is a poor performance and it’s a poor result from us.
“Of course, it has its reason why it is that. We didn’t perform to the levels that we can and I take responsibility for that, but we also have to say that the playing schedule that we went into playing on a late Sunday against West Ham, playing midweek and then Saturday at lunchtime is a really tough playing schedule and I can’t see any other women’s club team in England being asked to play in a playing schedule like that for the whole season.
“I know people will probably say that I’m complaining about it, but at the same point when we played Tottenham away last season, I said that when the playing schedule gets that congested, there is going to be a disadvantage for the team that is forced to play those games and it can’t be Arsenal all the time that gets into those situations.
"Over seasons it has to be divided across more clubs rather than just Arsenal being asked to play in schedules like that.”
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.
