Arsenal Women boss hits back at critics as WSL title race blown wide open

Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall hit back at critics after his side’s 3-1 Women’s Super League victory over Manchester United on Saturday.

Goals from Cloe Lacasse and Kim Little and an own goal from United’s Geyse Ferreira ensured the Gunners remained within three points of joint league leaders Manchester City and Chelsea in a fiercely contested title race.

The victory arrived shortly after a torrid spell from the Gunners in which they fell to back-to-back defeats in all competitions, first to West Ham in the league followed by Manchester City in the FA Cup fifth round.

The shock defeat to West Ham saw Eidevall thrust into the proverbial crosshairs by unimpressed Arsenal fans who felt another chance at silverware had been spurned. Indeed, the loss marked Arsenal’s third defeat of the league season. No team has ever suffered three defeats and lifted the WSL trophy.

But following Arsenal’s victory on Saturday in front of a record WSL crowd, Eidevall issued a stinging response to his detractors.

"People were saying after the West Ham game it was impossible for us to reach the top spot, but if I'm not reading it wrongly here it's three points with eight games to play. It's very much a race,” he said.

The Gunners comfortably saw off a menial United side, who left north London with only an injury-time consolation goal from Lucia Garcia to show for the day. For United, it leaves their title hopes in tatters and a bid for a European place ever more unlikely.

Arsenal, who are out of both the FA Cup and Champions League, still have to face Chelsea and Manchester City in their remaining league games, meaning fate rests in their own hands as they chase a first WSL trophy since 2019.

"The way I see it, we've never been in or out of it. We've played one game at a time, we've still got to play both teams ahead of us, and that would give us a good opportunity,” said Eidevall.

He added: "You need a lot of results like this to achieve what I and the club want to achieve. It was great today, but there's a lot of football left to be played.”

The Gunners boss made the bold decision to change six of his starting line-up from the surprise defeat by West Ham in their last WSL game. Though two were enforced as Leah Williamson suffered a “minor” hamstring injury in the lead-up to the match, Eidevall dropped both Caitlin Foord and Alessia Russo and kept Manuela Zinsberger on the bench after following the FA Cup loss to City.

The decision proved prescient, particularly in showing faith in goal-scorer Lacasse who proved an unbridled menace for which United couldn’t fashion a response.

"Sometimes these [selection] decisions turn out good, and they did today," said Eidevall. "We talk about being brave, and that comes to me as a coach. I cannot put players on the pitch for their names; if we think another player will be more perfect for the game plan, we need to do that.”