Arsenal head coach Joe Montemurro has called on his players to focus on the game rather than the occasion when The Gunners take on Crystal Palace in the fifth round of the Vitality Women’s FA Cup this afternoon.
Montemurro will say an emotional farewell to the club after the game as he returns to his native Australia to spend time with his family.
Speaking in the pre-match press conference in which FAWSL Full-Time were present, Montemurro said that his team must focus on the task of beating Palace rather than getting sidetracked by his departure.
“We’ll have to obviously focus everyone on the game,” Montemurro said. “As I’ve said many, many times, you know the
matchday is my favourite day, I love it, I love being part of it.
“I love enjoying it and I’ll make sure that I enjoy the last matchday as the head coach of Arsenal Women.
“We obviously want to make sure that we go deep into this cup. I hope I can make a contribution to get them to the next round. That is important and then obviously, we leave the team in a good place with Champions League, there’s an FA Cup to play for and obviously a new season, so it’s exciting times.”
Montemurro has enjoyed a largely successful three-and-a-half-year period in charge of The Gunners in which he has guided the club to a Barclays FA Women’s Super League title and the FA Women’s Continental League Cup. The club have also featured in the Women’s FA Cup final and in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Women’s Champions League under the likeable Australian. Montemurro was emotional when he commented on what he called a rollercoaster of journey with The Gunners.
He said “I’m feeling a lot of emotion. I’m going to be honest with you, this going away has been the longest going away but it’s like when my daughter has a birthday, it seems to go on for about three, four or five months, it’s unbelievable.
“It’s been incredible, an absolute journey. The amazing work that the media have done and the players and the
staff, I’m sort of a little bit humbled and feel as if I don’t deserve this. I’m just a football coach that has done the best he can. It’s been a rollercoaster.
“I think we’ve got to put an end to this, we’ve got to get a new coach in and we’ve got to get back to winning ways, not that we were losing anyway, so I think Sunday will be a little bit of a release, to be honest.”
Arsenal’s Vitality Women’s FA Cup fifth round tie against Crystal Palace at Meadow Park kicks-off at 3pm and will be available for fans to stream live on Arsenal.com.