Jonas Eidevall refused to take his foot off the throttle in Arsenal’s emphatic 5-0 win over Leicester in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League. Vivianne Miedema’s second-half double helped the Gunners finish with a flourish as Beth Mead, Tobin Heath and an Ashleigh Plumptre own goal capped a comfortable afternoon for the visitors.
Mead got the Gunners off to a flyer in just the second minute but Arsenal had to be patient before Miedema, 25, grabbed the first of her tally on 67 minutes. And Swedish boss Eidevall, whose side temporarily leapfrogged Chelsea – who play Reading on Sunday evening – at the summit of the FA WSL, said: “It was important for us to play with energy.
“We just talked through all the details and also making sure we kept attacking. There was no way were we going to sit back, no way were we going to be passive, so we had to keep attacking.
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“When we scored the second, we needed to go for the third, and so on. It’s the only way I know how to play these games and I think we’re successful in that.”
Mead ensured Leicester’s – who lost 9-0 to Chelsea last weekend – afternoon got off to another horror start as her volley after just two minutes fired the Gunners in front. Leicester rallied, however, stopping the rot for the rest of the first half as they kept the gap at a solitary goal heading into the interval.
They continued to defend resiliently up until the hour mark but the King Power floodgates soon opened when Miedema netted the first of her double just after the hour mark. The Dutch ace scored again just eight minutes later before Plumptre’s diverted a cross into her own net, followed by Heath’s scrappy effort, made for another FA WSL afternoon to forget for the hosts.
Arsenal were dumped out of the Women’s Champions League by Wolfsburg in midweek but the result meant they moved two points ahead of Chelsea ahead of their Sunday evening clash. And Eidevall, whose team take on the Blues in the Women’s FA Cup semi-finals over Easter weekend, added: “I think we deserved one more goal, at least, in the first half, given the chances that we had.
“But it’s also so easy in a game like this that one counter attack, one set-piece and all of a sudden it changes. We had two players on yellow cards and they could both be positions where you get exposed on the counter as well, so it was really important to stay in the game.”
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