Brighton & Hove Albion head coach Melissa Phillips says that she wants her side to only focus on their next performance against Arsenal at Broadfield Stadium this evening.
The Seagulls are a maximum of two points from Barclays Women’s Super League survival. Tonight could be a night of celebrations for the Sussex club if they can overcome a top class Arsenal side.
When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Brighton & Hove Albion boss Phillips said that she is not looking at the league table. She simply wants her side to focus on building on their last performance from the weekend rather than think about the pressure of winning the necessary points to stay up.
“We perform our best when there is less pressure on us,” Phillips said. “If we can remove the pressure from us and just focus on the performance, then that will put us in the best position possible.
“Everyone’s up for a night game at home against top teams. Of course, we are going to be up for the game, but we just want to focus on where we get better match-to-match rather than putting on any pressure for needing points from any specific game.”
Brighton & Hove Albion have already ran Manchester United close in the early stages of Phillips’ tenure. She believes that Arsenal pose a very different challenge to The Red Devils.
She said “It is a completely different challenge, especially given where Arsenal are at. They are a team that have had to manage a load of adversity with the injuries that they’ve had and the times that they have come throughout the season. In knowing enough about their squad, they’ve got a resilience in their group and a mentality that will be tough to play against.
“Equally, the formation that they are playing and how they are currently setting up, it poses teams different challenges to understand how to defend that. It is going to stretch us even further in an area of communication which we have been working on.
“We have been working on how we speak to each other, how we organise ourselves, how we problem-solve in critical moments of matches and managing momentum. It’ll stretch us in this match I’m sure.”
Brighton & Hove Albion’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Arsenal kicks-off at 7.30pm. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.
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