Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall spoke to the media following Arsenal's 5-0 win over Bristol City on Sunday evening. 

A brace a piece from Beth Mead and Alessia Russo either side of a Ella Powell own goal gave The Gunners their biggest home WSL win this campaign. 

Eidevall touched on his teams performance against low blocks both tonight and during the season, the fullbacks at his disposal, his thoughts on the performance overall and the returning Laura Weinroither. 

  • Players moving inside and being more inverted:

With Bristol City setting up in their usual back five, with a centre half trio of Amy Rogers, Brooke Aspin and Megan Connolly flanked by wing backs, Ella Powell and Jamie Lee Napier, Arsenal tried something different in their tactical armoury at Meadow Park. 

Often, Beth Mead and latterly Katie McCabe would be seen tucking in, almost in that more inverted role that we see more and more in the game these days, rather than being told to hang out wide on the byline, like the wingers of yesteryear. 

"It was the thinking, to put the five against five with them as they had a back five, so two wide players, two pocket players and one central to create that five so the way to do that was play with a wider forward." 

Arsenal's Emily Fox, who has been a stellar signing since her move to N was also adopting the inverted situation too, most notably in the second half, when on numerous occasions she found herself popping up in central positions in the final third, which is also something that she has in common with her fellow fullbacks. 

"You can see that now, with Laura (Weinroither), returning aswell, we have four full backs who can play inside, can play outside, can play high and can play low so it allows us to have that fluidity and play the way we want to."

  • "I think we deserved to score five goals tonight":

Even the most optimistic Bristol City fan will have to hold their hands up and say they were outclassed by Arsenal in every single department on Sunday evening. 

The Gunners recorded 74% possession, 32 shots to City's four as well as racking up over 500 more passes than their opponents at Meadow Park. 

They could've been out of sight even earlier in the first half, with Victoria Pelova hitting the bar with a sumptuous effort and Stina Blackstenius being denied well by Fran Bentley.

"I am very pleased with the performance, I always think it's difficult to come back from an international break and get a rhythm going, but I felt we looked like the team we want to be."

Arsenal have struggled at times this term against a low block, most notably in the opening day Liverpool defeat, and the North London derby loss just before Christmas, but Eidevall was pleased with the way his side rose to that challenge. 

"Tonight was another low block for us to playa gainst, but I think we showed variety in the way we attacked, we were patient on the ball and on the attack. We moved the ball well lots of the time and had lots of good movements off it, we deserved to score five goals today. 

"For me, I think we have had a clear change after the new year in dealing with low block, I am really happy with how we have progressed against low blocks." 

  • The returning Laura Weinroither:

The loudest cheer and the most popular moment of the night, belonged to Laura Weinroither, who made her emotional return from the ACL injury she suffered in last season's Champions League clash with Wolfsburg.

All four stands stood to applaud and the ever vociferous North Bank broke into the chant for their number 23, to the tune of Livin on a Prayer by Bon Jovi, which soon echoed around the whole ground in an emotional moment for the returning star, who thanked fans on Arsenal's official Twitter/X page, post match. 

"It was an emotional moment, there is so much work going on from her but also from her team mates and the staff, it's so nice to see when the player is able to return to play and doing what they love to do most." 

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