Arsenal head coach Jonas Eidevall has admitted that he has been impressed with the way that latest opponents Brighton & Hove Albion have turned their form around under new head coach Melissa Phillips.
The Gunners travel to Broadfield Stadium to take on the Sussex club this evening. After spending most of the season in a relegation battle, The Seagulls have taken seven points from their last four games and they are now within touching distance of safety.
When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Eidevall admitted that he has been impressed with Brighton & Hove Albion’s upturn in form under new boss Phillips.
“They have some nice structure with the way that they play,” Eidevall said. “I actually think that they’ve been playing good attacking football for most part of the season but they’ve just had a problem conceding goals. You can really see that they’ve put an emphasis on improving that lately.
“They look more organised and they concede fewer goalscoring opportunities. It was huge for them to keep a clean sheet against West Ham, it has been a long time since they have done that in the WSL and it is something that they have been working hard towards.
“We need to expect to play against a team that will put a lot of pride in their defending and that now has some self-confidence in that. They are also a team that are very dangerous on the counter attack.”
Brighton & Hove Albion are the joint-highest goalscorers in the bottom half of the Barclays Women’s Super League table and Eidevall knows that his side will have to defend resolutely at Broadfield Stadium this evening.
He said “Scoring goals hasn’t been their problem for the whole season, even before Christmas. They have some great individual players up there that can really contribute both with assists and goals.
“They have a really good squad of attacking players so we have to be cautious with that and defend really well against them. That is going to be one of the important factors in the game.”
Arsenal’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Brighton & Hove Albion kicks-off at 7.30pm.
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