Arsenal head coach Jonas Eidevall has hailed the club’s phenomenal ticket sales ahead of this afternoon’s North London Derby against Tottenham Hotspur at The Emirates Stadium.
The Gunners have sold more than 52,000 tickets for the match with the Barclays Women’s Super League’s long-standing attendance record of 38,262 set to be smashed.
When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Arsenal boss Eidevall said that the interest in the game is very real given the fact that 52,000 tickets have been bought by fans eager to watch the action unfold.
“Remember, it’s 52,000 sold tickets, it’s not giveaways, it’s not sold for a discounted price, it’s sold tickets,” Eidevall said. “I think that’s really, really special because that means that doing this in the way that the club have done it, it’s sustainable. It shows that the interest is for real.
“It’s phenomenal, we feel that we want to go out and make the most of it so it can happen again more frequently.”
Arsenal go into the match as the overwhelming favourites, especially given their past record against Spurs. Eidevall and his team are paying no attention to opinions from outside of the camp.
He said “We won’t think about it that way because when you do, you will already be stressed from the start because it starts 0-0. If you think that you’re entitled to win or expected to win then that result will stress you straight away because you don’t have the result that you want at the beginning. That’s not the way to go about a football game, you have to respect the opponent and you have to respect the game.
“It’s 90 minutes plus added time and we have to focus on the things we need to be doing well in defence and offence, in the transition and in the set pieces. That’s our objective, that’s our duty and that’s what we’re here to do.
“It doesn’t matter what team we are playing against. If someone thinks we’re favourites or not favourites, should that impact the level that we have on our way of playing? I want us to be 100% no matter of the score or no matter of the opponent. We just need to be 100% in everything that we’re doing.”
The North London Derby between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur kicks-off at 1.30pm this afternoon. Tickets remain on-sale at the Arsenal box office while online purchases can be made by clicking here.
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