Jonas Eidevall was full of praise for Arsenal captain Kim Little after the midfielder's "phenomenal" display against Chelsea helped the Gunners to victory in the Final of the Continental Tyres League Cup.
It was a nightmare start for Eidevall's side in front of a competition-record crowd of just over 19,000 at Selhurst Park; Sam Kerr rising to meet a sumptuous Guro Reiten delivery and nodding home to put Chelsea in front inside two minutes.
But Arsenal's industry and flair in the middle of the park quickly turned the game on its head, with striker Stina Blackstenius restoring parity inside 16 minutes before Little coolly dispatched her penalty to give the Gunners the lead.
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A Niamh Charles own goal on the stroke of half-time gave Arsenal some breathing space heading into the second half, with some smart goalkeeping from Manuela Zinsberger denying Chelsea a route back into the game after the break. The result saw Arsenal end their four-year trophy drought and marked the first piece of silverware of the Eidevall era.
"I'm very happy and very proud of the team’s display," the Gunners boss said after the game. "We got off to a difficult start, conceding a goal early on. It was a real test of character that we handled brilliantly.
"If you drop your heads then you’re never going to have a chance. It is not an easy moment but you need to have belief to stick to the game plan, to stick together. Any team that wins things has to handle difficult moments and this was the difficult moment in this competition which we handled very well."
Reflecting on Little's performance, he added: "When you thought she couldn’t get better, she puts on that performance. I told Kim after the game, I wasn’t sure it was possible but ‘this is the best you’ve been since I have been the coach.’
"I think she was phenomenal the whole game. The way she connects the team, the duels, the work rate, her decision making on the ball. She plays close to a perfect match, I am so happy for her. It is a trait for a great player to have a performance like that when it matters most."
Sunday's victory extended Arsenal's record as the most successful side in Conti Cup history, with the Gunners now having lifted the trophy six times. And Eidevall is hopeful that this particular triumph could be a catalyst for more success going forwards.
"When you look at the last decade, we have not been the leading club in women’s football in England and historically we have been," he said. "It is, of course, the ambition of the club to go back and regain that position in women’s football again.
"With the number of trophies we have won in the last ten years it’s difficult, we know it’s really, really difficult. But the ambition is to come back and compete for any trophy. It was nice to go the whole way because that can fill us with belief when we see the way we work can result in trophies."
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