We maintained our perfect start to the season on Sunday by beating Lewes Women 9-0 in the Continental Tyres Cup.
Both Vivianne Miedema and Kim Little scored hat-tricks as we climbed to the top of Group D - and Joe Montemurro was full of praise for his side, having made a number of tactical changes.
We spoke to the Arsenal Women’s manager after the final whistle - and this is what he said:
on the team’s performance…
I think it was important that we got the result, but more importantly we played at a tempo that would give us enough rest and recovery to prepare for three games in a week. We have have Yeovil and West Ham later this week and everyone got through at a good tempo so we’re able to hopefully recover everyone for the next game.
on pinning Lewes back into their box…
They obviously went out to defend and keep us away from goal, but it was a real situation where we found overloads and numbers and what happens is that they start to back off and then the spaces begin to open up. We were proactive and we tinkered with the system a little bit today and played with less defenders and more midfielders, and we were able to find spaces.
on the benefits of having the greater share of possession…
It’s all part of the process. It was really important that we kept the ball so that we wouldn't get into any messy or silly scenarios which can happen against these teams, so we just wanted to make sure that we were in control and we could control the tempo and make it a good preparation game, physically, tactically and mentally for the next game.
on Miedema scoring back-to-back hat-tricks and Little scoring in each of her last four apps…
They’re two world class players and two players that we’re very privileged to have at Arsenal. Their great work during pre-season is now starting to show.
on the importance of a good start to the season…
It’s all about standards and we want to make sure that we’re the team that’s feared and we’re going into every game knowing that we’re going to play a good brand of football, but also make sure that we come away playing the Arsenal style.
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