Eidevall Praises “Incredible” WSL Record Home Crowd for Arsenal’s Win Over Chelsea

Arsenal Women manager, Jonas Eidevall has praised a record WSL crowd for their “incredible” in the 4-1 home win over Chelsea.

Amanda Ilestedt’s header and Alessia Russo’s brace completed a dominant home win for Arsenal to move level on 22 points with league leaders, Chelsea, after Beth Mead’s opening goal had been cancelled out by the Blues’ Johanna Rytting-Kaneryd in front of 59.042 spectators.

Speaking post-match to arsenal.com, Eidevall praised supporters for creating an important electric atmosphere which motivated the players, as he explained: “Very, for both. I think the synergy between the crowd and the team was incredible today.

“I think the team starts to get going well, but so does the crowd, and it just takes it to a new level.”

“I think you can see how that momentum was when we scored to make it 2-1 and then quickly made it 3-1. We obviously got ourselves off to a great position in the game.”

Eidevall also acknowledged the team’s response to the atmosphere with a quality performance against a team were unbeaten coming into this match.

“Yeah, but the way that we managed the ball in the first half, you don’t have enough time when you win the ball back from Chelsea, so you need to be quick at finding solutions when playing forward.

“But from there on, we can’t make the whole game transitional, we’re just trying to get to the quickest way to goal. We had to make good decisions for that, and I thought we were doing that really well.”

The 59,042 spectators also marked a huge improvement on the 8,705 strong crowd who turned up for this clash at the Emirates on the opening day of the 2021-22 season, which left Eidevall delighted at the progress of the crowd attendance within the Women’s Super League.

“That’s the difference for me. I looked at it two-and-a-half seasons ago when we were playing Chelsea with 9,000 people here, and now we’re at 59,000 people.

“It’s 59,000 people that scream their lungs out for Arsenal, what an atmosphere we created together and how much I just look forward to getting back here again for the next time at Emirates Stadium. Hopefully, we can sell a few more tickets then and get a sellout in the WSL.”

The rising crowd attences in Eidevall’s view also served to iterate “…the really positive momentum around the football club at the moment.

“I’m not even going to say it was only a positive day for Arsenal Women today, I thought it was a really positive day for the whole of Arsenal Football Club.”

Russo also praised the crowd for their support as she added: “I hope they enjoyed that one! I say it every single time I get interviewed and asked about our fans but they’re just the best.

“We hear them through every tough moment they’re there, and through every high, we get to celebrate with them so they’re great.”