[New post] Arsenal setting pace for title rivals Chelsea and Man City in Women’s Super League, Jonas Eidevall’s instant impact, Vivianne Miedema on fire as women’s team provide inspiration for Mikel Arteta’s side

Josh Fordham posted: " There's one team that is catching everyone's attention in the Women's Super League - that is Arsenal. The Gunners are relishing life under new manager Jonas Eidevall and made a 100 per cent start in the league. This has already caught a f" New post on talkSPORT Arsenal setting pace for title rivals Chelsea and Man City in Women's Super League, Jonas Eidevall's instant impact, Vivianne Miedema on fire as women's team provide inspiration for Mikel Arteta's side by Josh Fordham There's one team that is catching everyone's attention in the Women's Super League - that is Arsenal. The Gunners are relishing life under new manager Jonas Eidevall and made a 100 per cent start in the league. Eidevall has got Arsenal playing some brilliant football This has already caught a few surprises among other teams, especially after replacing manager Joe Montemurro - who won two trophies during his four year spell with the club. Since the north London outfit's last title triumph in the 2018/19 campaign, they have endured defeats to title rivals Chelsea and Manchester City and has left Arsenal short of domestic success. Arsenal have rekindled their best form since the title-winning campaign, playing the best attacking free-flowing football with great tenacity and notching some of the best team goals in the league. Eidevall's side have notched 19 goals in the league and only conceded two, while keeping four consecutive clean sheets.  Arsenal have already scored 19 goals in just five WSL games Arsenal are still behind in conquering on the European front and lost 4-1 to Barcelona in their opening group game. Leading from the front is Dutch striker Vivianne Miedema. She is Arsenal's star player and recently reached the landmark of scoring more than 100 goals for the club.  She is an offensive player who pulls the strings in the attacking line and having the ability to smell danger in tight situations. Most important of all, she is the orchestra in Arsenal's front line, but pressure has been released off her shoulders with recent signings of Mana Iwabuchi, Nikita Parris and Tobin Heath from rival clubs. The 25-year-old striker spoke to the Guardian last month about the team lacking 'squad depth and numerous injury crises' in recent seasons, giving the team extra quality to compete with other striking partnerships like Chelsea's Sam Kerr, Pernille Harder and Fran Kirby. We cannot fault the impact of Katie McCabe and continuously demonstrated her versatility in different positions (winger, full-back and attacking midfield), with pace, power, aerial duels and distribution of crosses, playing a pivotal role in their impressive start by scoring three times. Parris was a summer signing for Arsenal It's not just the attacking frontline, another stand out player at the moment is Kim Little. She recently retired from the international scene and sustained a few injuries over the past few seasons - Arsenal have missed her. The Scotland international has been brilliant on her feet and distribution of passes opens up the opposition. Little's ability to play higher up the pitch as well as dedicating the tempo of the game is her biggest quality. Sky Sports pundit regarded Little's 'football intelligence' as one of the best in the league. Eidevall was appointed as the club's new manager in June. He took over a side that have underachieved in the last two seasons. The imminent departure of Montemurro came at a perfect time as the Gunners were drifting away in both league and domestically and couldn't strengthen their grip against their title rivals - including newly-promoted Manchester United since gaining promotion to the top flight. Arsenal look dominant in the early part of the season The former Arsenal manager served the club well in his first few seasons, winning the Women's League Cup in 2018 and the Super League a year later.  He helped the north-London side to three domestic cup finals and accumulated individual awards along the way. It was evident that the wealth and managerial ability of both Manchester clubs and Chelsea had to be Eidevall's biggest obstacle as part of the rebuilding process. Montemurro set the foundations for Eidevall to succeed at the club where he kept the core squad of players and added some additional quality to help with squad depth. Whilst adding quality front-line strikers, the additional signings include Simeone Boye Sorensen and Frida Maanum from Bayern Munich and Linkopings FC respectively. Arsenal last won the WSL in the 2018/19 season The Swedish manager implemented a new style of football and was renowned for his 'high-paced possession game' that matches the values and standards set by Arsenal football club. Arsenal's intense pressing and aggressiveness on the front foot has supported Eidevall in terms of his tactics and cemented a style of football that perfectly suits the team. Being aggressive and winning the ball high up on the pitch has made them less predictable. The credit has to go to the players for adapting well to a different approach whoever the opposition they encounter against every weekend. Like against Everton, they were compact in the middle of midfield. It was different against City where Miedema praised the manager's tactical approach as having benefited her in terms of earning more possession on the ball. "He's got a wee bit of a different playing style," she said. "It does come with a lot of freedom for me, so I can't really complain. "We love pressing forward, we love taking control of the game and, in the past couple years, that basically meant having the ball. We weren't that focused on what we did without the ball. Jonas tries to focus on both things.  "Looking back at the last couple of games [a 3-2 defeat of Chelsea and 4-0 win over Reading] you do see that we are a bit more direct. I know that I need to be in the box a bit more. For a No 9, that's what you want, you want to get the ball in the box. Our mindset going into the big games has definitely changed.  "I feel like we can trust ourselves, we can be confident moving forward, going up, and that comes back to me as well." Arsenal have historically enjoyed great success domestically Arsenal Women's team are one of the most successful clubs in women's football, and endured lots of success under longest-serving manager Vic Akers. Akers, 75, managed the club for 22 years and achieved both league and domestic success on multiple occasions.  The Gunners are still the only English team to have won the UEFA Women's Champions League and to achieve the quadruple in 2007 under Akers' stewardship and is one of his best achievements to date. At the time, Arsenal had players such as Alex Scott, who scored the winner in the final against Umea, Rachel Yankey, Casey Stoney, Emma Bryne and Kelly Smith have all been pivotal to the club's unprecedented success. Since Akers' departure, the women's game became professionalised and have endured a fair share of success under Laura Harvey, Shelley Kerr, Pedro Losa and Montemurro for over ten years. With the men's team, they have unachieved on many fronts over the years, including the latter years of former manager Arsene Wenger, Unai Emery and Mikel Arteta. Arteta can perhaps take inspiration from the women's team Recent FA Cup successes and the Community Shield has brought a bundle of joy amongst fans, but he hasn't papered over the crack of recent failures. The demand from supporters is they want to see the club back they belong in competing for the league and European titles. Arteta and his team should learn from the women's team by knowing the best starting XI to create an identity and fielding the players in the right areas that can give their maximum on the football pitch. An important area is to nurture and protect the youth players making their way and to have versatile players that can provide sufficient cover in different areas if there's major injuries. It is an ongoing process for Arteta that needs time and patience, but they can be inspired by the recent success of the women's team to push his side forward to greatness. Josh Fordham | October 16, 2021 at 10:00 am | Tags: Women's Super League | Categories: Football, Women's Football | URL: https://wp.me/p9Zq5u-427Y Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from talkSPORT. Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: https://talksport.com/football/961494/arsenal-womens-super-league-eidevall-midema-arteta/