Arsenal head coach Jonas Eidevall says that the North Londoners have huge respect for what Aston Villa have achieved under Carla Ward.
The two clubs meet at Villa Park on Sunday afternoon. Arsenal are currently in third position in the Barclays Women’s Super League table while Aston Villa’s excellent start to the season has resulted in them occupying fifth.
Arsenal defeated Aston Villa 7-0 the last time that the two sides met at the end of last season but head coach Eidevall has acknowledged the fact that The Villans have grown and he says that there is huge respect for their progress.
“I think they were progressing (during) the whole spring,” Eidevall said. “We played very well in that game when we won at home at Boreham Wood in the spring but before that game, they were a really strong team and were really close to getting points at Chelsea. It went to the last minutes of that game before it was decided.
“We have massive respect for Aston Villa. We see them as one of the teams developing most in the league and Carla Ward is doing a tremendous job there. We know that they will be motivated, they will be ready for Sunday and we need to match that.”
Aston Villa forward Rachel Daly has scored five goals in her last four Barclays Women’s Super League outings. Eidevall knows that she is a world-class player but Arsenal will not be paying her all of the attention.
“She’s been tremendous,” the Arsenal boss said. “Coming back, it felt like she was scoring everything for a time.
“Villa are a good team – they have a lot of different threats. Rachel Daly has been phenomenal so far this season but it’s not only her. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy to only (focus) on her. We need to focus on Villa as a whole team in order to deal with them and get the result we want.”
Arsenal’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Aston Villa kicks-off at 4.15pm on Sunday afternoon.
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