Jonas Eidevall felt Arsenal were ‘the better team’ in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with defending Women’s Super League champions Chelsea at Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal were left heartbroken when Sam Kerr popped up with an 89th-minute equaliser following a magnificent cross from Jelena Čanković.
Kim Little had given the Gunners the lead from the penalty spot after Caitlin Foord was fouled by Niamh Charles.
And Eidevall said: “I think even in the first half we were the better team. We created more goalscoring opportunities than Chelsea. All in all, if I look at the whole game, I’m happy with the performance, both subjectively with how we played football but also objectively in the goalscoring opportunities we created.
“I’m obviously disappointed with the result because it’s a draw. It’s one of those games when you’re retrospectively looking at it, could we have been even more active in the last 15 minutes of the game? I don’t think they created a lot, Chelsea.
“Normally, we would have defended that game to a victory but they had a moment of brilliance. It’s a very good cross, a very good run, a good finish. Yes, we could have done better but that’s what happens when you’re playing top opposition.”
Arsenal limited Chelsea to any real openings, shutting down their high press and Eidevall added: “We executed the game plan very well, both in build-up and in the way we pressed. The players did that very well but I also did it well with the way I set it up.”
On the attendance of 46,811, the Swede said: “It’s also impressive that it’s the third consecutive WSL game that has drawn these big attendances, it’s my hope going into this game that we can start playing better with the crowd. The more we experience it, come here and do that, the more we can turn this into our fortress and create this great Arsenal atmosphere around it.
“You can also see where the players are getting more comfortable with engaging with the crowd. We will need to create that bond together in order to make the Emirates as difficult as possible for opponents to come and play at.”
On not using his new signings from the bench, he said: “You have to look at it very realistically. The way it works with registrations and work permits and so on, these players have not had a lot of training time with us.
“These players were only registered here as a last-minute thing for the game here. It’s always easy to be thinking about the game in retrospect and being the Monday morning quarterback for it.
“I thought we had control of the game, I was confident we were going to defend the game home to a victory and I didn’t feel there was any need to change. I told the players after in the huddle, this will be really good for us, we get another week of working together, it will prepare the new players even more and hopefully then they can come on and make a difference.”
On how the dressing room was able to cope with the disappointment of conceding so late, Eidevall added: “You have to be able to keep two thoughts in your head at the same time. You can be happy with the performance and disappointed with the result. But, long-term, it’s more important to get the performance part right because that’s what is going to drive the results.
“We know it’s a league with small margins and we know everything can be decisive about it. That part there, we’re disappointed with but going forward we need to draw strength from the performance.”
Arsenal visit Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday (6.45pm).
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