With four minutes to play in extra-time in Sunday’s Continental Cup final, the entire Arsenal bench spilled onto the Molineux pitch — and not just because Stina Blackstenius had scored what turned out to be the winner against Chelsea.
Yes, Arsenal were a step closer to their only real chance of silverware this season but additionally they were beating a side who had thrashed them just two weeks previously, in another performance which proved they can compete against the country’s best despite the disappointingly inconsistent season they have had.
Add to that to the loss of Frida Maanum in dramatic circumstances, after she had collapsed off the ball, and Arsenal overcame a mountain to ensure the 2023-24 season will conclude with some tangible value. It’s little wonder, then, that emotions were high.
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On their response to those circumstances, Arsenal head coach Jonas Eidevall said: “One of the learnings from the league game against Chelsea was we didn’t cope well in a high-pressure, stressed environment with the way we focused on the right things or communicated. That was a really important lesson in that game. If we want to be a high-performing team, we need to own those situations.
“This is probably one of the hardest situations, because it looks very scary when Frida goes down. It’s very easy to get drawn into the emotion and focus on that point but the reality is we have a great medical team and they’re the ones who look after that situation. We need to focus on playing football. We were able to do that and then the first thing after the game, we don’t care about winning, we care about how things are with Frida.
“We’re so happy she’s doing well. That’s more important than this (the winner’s medal).”
After their title challenge ended at Stamford Bridge, in a similar fashion to last season, the Continental Cup final carried extra weight for Arsenal.
They entered 2023-24 with big ambitions, only to fail at the qualifying stage in the Champions League group stages, while they have been playing catch-up in the Women’s Super League after claiming one point from their opening two games. They have shown signs of improvement at various points this season, but have been hamstrung by indecisiveness. Built for the Champions League, there was acknowledgement from Lotte Wubben-Moy that this is “a special squad with a lot of talent that hasn’t fulfilled its potential.”
The Continental Cup was an opportunity to correct that a little, something that was apparent in a few performances in particular.
Wubben-Moy herself was the first to lay down a marker. With Johanna Rytting Kaneryd running at the Arsenal backline inside the first minute, and most of them backing off, the 25-year-old stepped forward to win both the ball and a foul. From that point she dominated one-on-one against Mayra Ramirez, knowing when to go tight and thwart the forward, while also impressing with short and clipped passes into midfield.
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Before her welfare was put in doubt, Maanum was another standout performer. In for the injured Lia Walti, who played in the last meeting with Chelsea, the Norway international started as a No 10 but pushed up to join Stina Blackstenius in the front line to press Jess Carter and Hannah Hampton. She disrupted Chelsea’s build-up, forcing Hampton long multiple times and eventually helped Arsenal pose more of a threat in attack by positioning herself near Blackstenius when the Swede was used as a target.
“She kickstarted her season last year away at Lyon with a performance like this where she was absolutely phenomenal in how she played defensively,” Eidevall said. “That is a great way for Frida to get into the game and then start expressing herself on the ball as well. This game has a lot of comparisons to that. It’s really important both for the team but also Frida as a player to have that defensive performance, so that was really pleasing to see. That was a massive piece of us being successful today.”
Emma Hayes admitted this “locked” Chelsea off in the first half as the all-round contributions of Maanum helped set the tone. Arsenal had control of the first half, but threatened to end the afternoon with a performance that typified their season. They showed promising signs for the most part but their lack of clarity in the final third could have cost them.
Maanum’s performance was even more impressive considering she has started just six league games this season. Eidevall was not able to say when Maanum would be able to return to action post-match, but like against Manchester United, him starting Blackstenius and Lacasse gave a glimpse into what will be necessary next season: a better understanding and use of the tools at his disposal.
Lacasse has played off the right for most of the season before being used on the left — where she played for Benfica — against Manchester United. Her impact was instant, and despite not having the finishing touch against Chelsea, she was a similarly important outlet at Molineux.
The size of this season’s squad unnecessary once Arsenal had missed out on the Champions League. Likely to finish third in the WSL again, they cannot afford to make a similar mistake and have players of this quality starved of minutes. Eidevall knows he has talented options across the pitch. Now it is about giving that talent the necessary opportunity to flourish together while building a better understanding, which is why building towards next season is crucial.
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Last week he admitted he is “not waiting until the end of the season to try and find the reasons why we have been inconsistent.” That was evident in this performance, with the slightly different midfield set-up a display of learning from the pitfalls of the trip to Stamford Bridge. Even so, there is an issue the Swede knows he has to address in the off-season.
“What most people see with the team is the tip of the iceberg,” Eidevall said. “That’s our performances. But I see everything below that. I see the day-to-day, the environment, the culture that we build and how that fits together with the long-term plan. I see us moving in the right direction. I definitely see that. We have a thing to solve. At the end of this season: our consistency.
“Our level to compete with top teams has been very good this season. I think we have the potential to beat any team. Looking back three seasons ago, that wasn’t the case. That was a big thing when I was coming in, working with that culture and making the team competitive against top teams. We are that now. What is important is that we are that in a way that we can be proud of representing Arsenal. We’re playing our way. You can clearly see our DNA when playing and it’s important that’s sustainable.
“We need to fix the consistency. It’s a really important thing if we want to win in more than one competition.”
That one competition to have seen consistency is the Continental Cup — important in giving Arsenal something quantifiable for two successive seasons now.
Compared to last year’s triumph at Selhurst Park, though, this needs to be a launching point for Arsenal to prove they have more than just ‘potential’. Especially considering that, for now at least, this was the last meeting between Eidevall and Hayes before Chelsea begin a new era of their own.
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