Alignment
Alignment
"What I feel is togetherness, it's a one club mentality… when the past meets the present, we can feel this unified bond". That was Jonas Eidevall's response when asked what Arsenal means to him in an in-house interview conducted with the club following the announcement last week that the Swede had signed a new long-term contract at the club. The timing of the contract has certainly raised eyebrows. One headline read: "Arsenal Reward Coach On Three-Match Losing Streak With New Three-Year Contract". Sound familiar?
In May 2022, Mikel Arteta was handed a new contract off the back of a three match losing run in charge of the men's team that had put their top four hopes in jeopardy. They ultimately finished fifth, but the club didn't get bogged down in short-termism. After all, this was a man that had arrived a club in turmoil – one that had lost its identity - and instilled a new footballing culture that would eventually transform the club's prospects. Sure, there were growing pains in the form of consecutive eighth-place finishes and a botched pursuit of Champions League football in 21/22, but by then, the direction was positive and the club's hierarchy recognised that. Externally, the decision to award Arteta a new deal was met with derision, but one year on, Arteta had not only guided the club back to the Champions League after 6 seasons away, but mounted the unlikeliest of title challenges; with Arsenal ultimately falling just five points short of the juggernaut that is Manchester City. The signs of progress was there, the process was trusted, and results were delivered.
17 months on, in keeping with an overarching club philosophy that transcends the men's and women's teams, the past has melded with the present. Arsenal Women's executive group of Clare Wheatley, Edu and Richard Garlick have resisted the short-term pain of an early Champions League exit and WSL opening day defeat, backing their man. The decision may have been met with derision from those outside the club, a look at comments under the announcement on Twitter (as I will continue to call it) tells you that even within the Arsenal fanbase, support for the Swede is far from unanimous. Internally, club and manager are aligned.
If Arteta inherited a club at relative rock bottom, Eidevall inherited one that was in a broadly healthy place, but beginning to drift. Three seasons prior to his arrival, Arsenal had clinched their first WSL title in seven years but had followed that up with two consecutive trophyless seasons, both of which included third-place league finishes. For a club that boasts an unrivalled status as the historical powerhouse of English women's football, this wasn't good enough; a change was needed. The circumstances Eidevall inherited were far from ideal, in his first summer at the club, deals bring in Mana Iwabuchi and Nikita Parris predated his arrival; this was not a squad in his image, yet. Despite this, he wasted no time in establishing his own brand of play, an energetic press-oriented style was clear for all to see in first game as manager, as he masterminded a first league win over Chelsea since the title winning campaign of 18/19. That season, Arsenal pushed their London rivals all the way, finishing one point off Chelsea – a nine game winning streak which included a run of seven games without conceding a goal was ultimately not enough to reclaim the WSL title.
At the conclusion of season one, the reviews were overwhelming positive, and Eidevall was rewarded with a new contract after just 10 months in the job, which he signed alongside Arteta. In that first season, it was a poor result at the turn of the year that ultimately cost the gunners the title. In January 2022, they travelled to bottom of the league Birmingham City, who were without a single win all season, while Arsenal themselves were still unbeaten. With key players away at the Asia Cup and others absent through injury, a patched-up side was fielded, and it showed, as Arsenal lost the game 2-0. That was their only defeat of the season. Later that month, recognising that the squad lacked the depth it needed not just to fight for the title, but on multiple fronts, the club bolstered it with additions of Stina Blackstenius, Laura Wienroither and Rafaelle. It is no coincidence that after this, Arsenal finished the season exceptionally strongly.
In his first season in the job, Eidevall had shown that if backed properly, he could be the man to fire Arsenal back to the top of the women's game. With three signings from the previous summer departing a year later while others faded from the managers plans, it was anticipated that Eidevall would be backed in the market again, but this did not come to pass, with Lina Hurtig, backup goalkeeper Kaylan Marckese and young prospect Gio the only additions. If Arsenal were to challenge again, they would have to do it with a scaled-back squad, and things were about to get worse.
Arsenal finished a distant third in the WSL in 22/23, some 11 points off top spot. One year on from a full-blown title challenge, they had only scraped Champions League football (sort of) by the skin of their teeth and their final tally of 47 points was one less than they had managed in Montemurro's final season. Despite all of this, the season was regarded by most Arsenal fans as a success. From October to December, Arsenal lost both of their central defenders to injury. In November, Beth Mead, that is, Balon d'Or runner-up Beth Mead, tore her ACL; in December Vivianne Miedema, that is, Balon D'or nominee Vivianne Miedema, tore her ACL; in April it, was Leah Williamson's turn; Laura Wienroither completed the long-term injury quartet in May.
In other words, the squad suffered a series of injuries that made the men's full-back injury crisis of January 2012 ™ look tame. In this context, a top three finish, a first Champions League semi-final in a decade (in which Arsenal pushed Wolfsburg all the way with a patched-up squad) and a trophy to boot represented a successful second season, even if circumstances dictated that the manager could not evolve his team in the way he would have liked. Instead, this was a season that required flexibility and resilience above all else.
With plenty of credit in the bank, Eidevall was backed in the transfer market this summer. Injuries and departures dictated that major surgery had to be done in central defence, with Amanda Ilestedt and Laia Codina joining from PSG and Barcelona respectively to fill the gaping hole left by Leah Williamson and Rafaelle. The latter joined for a club-record fee, though this could be usurped by the sum paid on deadline day to Hammarby to secure the signature of Kyra Cooney-Cross, should add-ons be achieved. Of course, Arsenal's marquee signing of the summer did not command a six figure fee, indeed, Alesia Russo did not cost anything at all, joining on a free transfer from Manchester United in arguably the most-high profile transfer in the history of women's football.
With six players signing new deals at the club since May on top of the five additions made over the course of the summer window, every member of Jonas' squad is now a player he has either signed or given a new contract. This is his squad. Beth Mead is available selection again following her ACL injury, it is hoped that Miedema will return before the end of the calendar year. For the first time since the start of last season, Arsenal have significant squad depth. Surely, there can be no more excuses for the manager. There has been churn in the coaching staff too. This year, Rene Slegers, Kelly Smith and Patrick Winqvist have all joined the coaching staff, earlier in the year, Lydia Bedford enjoyed a short-term stint as an assistant coach.
As the strength of the squad grows, so too do expectations. Had the same announcement been made in May, the response, you would imagine, would have been very different, but a manager's stock is defined by results on the pitch and it is no exaggeration to say that the results have been disastrous. Having a 180 degree change of opinion on a manager based on two results seems harsh, but the nature of the back to back defeats that Arsenal suffered domestically and in Europe were devasting enough for some to do just this, if online opinion is anything to go by.
When you go out in the qualifying rounds of a competition that you reached the semi-final of in the previous year, people don't want to hear about bad pitches, unbalanced draws, or poor scheduling; they want an inquest, and when that happens, the blame usually falls at the door of the manager. When the same manager's tactics contribute to a turgid team performance on the opening weekend of the season. His detractors will not waste the opportunity to stick the knife in.
Any competently run club has to look beyond the short-term and by deciding to give the manager a new contract, Arsenal have done this. The announcement was made in the week leading to up to Arsenal's trip to Leigh Sports Village to face Manchester United, who did the double over Arsenal last season, and while Arsenal failed to win a third consecutive game in all competitions, the difference in performance from the previous weekend was night and day. For the second consecutive game Arsenal lined up with a back three, but with Noelle Maritz back in the team having missed Arsenal's opener through injury, this felt like a decision made by design rather than necessity. Arsenal probably did enough to win the game on balance of chances created, but two defensive lapses in concentration ultimately left the, chasing a game they should have been control of. Still, the value of Cloe Lacasse's injury-time wonder-strike in lifting the mood around the club after a testing month could exceed that of point it saved on the night.
That Arsenal have backed their manager at what appears to be the nadir of his time at the club speaks volumes, but if there is one thing that Arsenal have not lacked under Eidevall's leadership, it's belief. Last season he spoke about his team's 'anti fragility' as Arsenal continued to pick up results after they were ravaged by injuries. Once again, Arsenal find themselves in a situation where they must scale a mountain against the odds. In each of the last three seasons, the team that has won the WSL has dropped no more than ten points. Arsenal have already dropped five. In other words, Arsenal have used up most of their margin for error in a brutally competitive league. In the short term, it feels almost fanciful to talk about the title, even if you have faith in the players and the manager. First and foremost, in a game of catchup, Arsenal need to get points on the board.
It is hoped that the turnaround will begin in earnest on Sunday where they return to Emirates, where Arsenal will play back-to-back league games for the first time. Arsenal have not won a league game in N5 since last September of last year, losing two of the three games they have played there since a 4-0 North London Derby win at the start of last season. Incidentally Villa were the only team to beat Arsenal at Meadow Park last season, in an end of season dead-rubber. Speaking to Arsenal last week, Eidevall said “My hope and wish is that each one of them returns for the Aston Villa game (on October 15) so we can show them something completely different because they deserve that.”