Arsenal’s standards in Everton draw not high enough for Emirates crowd, says Eidevall | OneFootball

Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall said he believes his side’s standards in today’s gruelling goalless draw to Everton were not high enough for the home Emirates crowd.

Despite having 68.7% possession and a raft of chances, Arsenal found themselves confounded by Everton’s high press and ‘never say die’ attitude to defending, bolstered also by a blistering performance from Courtney Brosnan between the sticks.

On the other hand, the 25,480 home fans could not urge Arsenal on to victory.

Speaking at full time, Eidevall admitted that his side will have to improve before facing Bayern Munich and Chelsea in upcoming fixtures.

He said: “I think we had quite a bit of control but at home, at the Emirates, we should have much higher demands and standards on ourselves and on our attacking game.

“I think first half we played with too little intent, we moved the ball too slow, but when we don’t move the ball quicker than that it is really hard to break down a side like Everton who prioritise having so many players behind the ball.”

He admitted that his side improved throughout the match, but that a faster start would have changed their fortunes.

“I think the intent and creating the momentum, we did that in the second half but I think we left it too late to be happy with it.

“If we had created that momentum and mentality from [kick-off] I can’t see the game going any other way than us winning, but we sort of left that to chance.

“I am disappointed with that but I think we need to learn from it.”

He did add, however, that Arsenal will not need much motivation to prepare for an upcoming match away to Bayern Munich and a home tie against reigning WSL champions Chelsea.

He said: “We are disappointed with the game today but with the games coming up we don’t need any more fuel or motivation.

“Those games, those opponents are fuel enough for us.

“Yes we need to do our absolute best, yes they are going to be different games, yes we need to take the necessary learnings from those games and we need to look forward, because no matter how disappointed we are today we still have a job to do on Wednesday night and we can’t dwell on things too much.”

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