Jonas Eidevall has called for more consistency within games from his Arsenal side after they lost 2-0 in their FA Cup semi final on Sunday.
The Gunners started the game well and arguably shaded a close first half at Meadow Park with Vivianne Miedema firing the game's best chance over the bar from the edge of the box. However, the game was ultimately decided in the space of 60 seconds at the beginning of the second period.
Beth Mead did well to pluck Steph Catley's cross out of the sky before swivelling away from Aniek Nouwen only to fire a low effort just wide for what would have been a brilliant opening goal. With literally the next attack of the game though Guro Reiten was given far too much space on the edge of the box by Kim Little and rifled a looping effort beyond the reach of Manuella Zinsberger to put Chelsea in front.
READ MORE: Arsenal Women vs Chelsea Women highlights: Ji doubles Blues lead after Reiten opener
From that point on the Blues dominated the game and doubled their lead 15 minutes later when Lotte Wubben-Moy's poor clearance fell to Ji So-Yun to thunder in off the underside of the bar. Emma Hayes' side could easily have more than the two they ended up with were it not for the inspired form of Zinsberger in the Arsenal goal, and after the game a frustrated Eidevall admitted that he was disappointed with his side's reaction to the disappointment of going behind.
"Unfortunately yes," he said when asked if the minute in the build up to Reiten's opener had proved decisive in the game. "But I also think that’s the most disappointing thing about today’s game. Of course it’s better if Beth scores and we don’t concede a goal at that moment, but we can’t let a goal like that define our performance like we did today. That’s the disappointing thing and that’s where I think we don’t give ourselves the chance to get a result today.
"If we would have carried on playing, being disciplined, being consistent, carrying out the game plan, even if we were lost 1-0, then I think I could have accepted the defeat in that manner and said ‘OK it wasn’t our day.’
"But if we want to be a winning team we can’t be dependent on scoring the opening goal. Of course it’s an advantage doing it, but we still need to have the mentality of being consistent, carrying on and doing the right things over and over again. That we didn’t do today and that’s disappointing."
“Consistency was the difference and obviously as it turned out quality in the deciding actions of the game," he went on to add. "If we’re going to beat a team like Chelsea we need to be consistent and we can’t be dependent on scoring the first goal in games like this. Even if we concede the first goal we need to be consistent and we need to carry on playing.
"I think we showed in the first 40 minutes that we have quality enough to to play against Chelsea and to beat Chelsea as well. But we need to do that (be consistent) much better. That’s not an easy thing to fix but we need to do it."
Arsenal will now turn their focus on to remaining games of their WSL campaign. With four games remaining the gunners sit just one point behind Chelsea. Emma Hayes' side play third placed Manchester United on the final day of the season, who could be looking to pip Manchester City to a Champions League spot, but the Gunners will know that if they are to stand a chance of ending a three year trophy drought that they will most likely have to win all of their remaining games this campaign.
