Belief in model a big factor for Arsenal's Eidevall

The Gunners began their WSL campaign in convincing fashion by beating the Seagulls at Meadow Park with goals from Kim Little, Stina Blackstenius and a Beth Mead brace.

Eidevall said: “It comes down to keeping belief in your model. I don’t mind teams being organised against us, for me I like to play the same game over and over again because we are prepared for it. I think the consequence of the way that we play is that it will look like that a lot.

"When teams have a higher defensive line than us then we play the ball in behind, like we did with Stina in the beginning, that was a one-on-one and forced the red card for Emma Kullberg.

"We have a lot of pace against a higher line, so most teams will play in a lower block because that’s how teams try to handle our strengths.”

With Brighton being down to ten players so early, Eidevall explained how he works on 10-v-11 in training on a weekly basis, adding: “Because we didn’t have 22 players available ahead of this game, when I wanted to practice attack, I wanted to practice with 10 players because I find it is really hard to practice with eight and you start having really odd positioning and then we don’t have that connection on the pitch.

"Then I would rather train 10-v-7 because in the low block we need to be so good, so we should be able to defend with seven players and have it feel like we are defending with 10 if we move quick enough with the ball.

"We do that often in training, for the attack to be a full-sized team, not because we think we are going to play against teams with players sent off but we do it often."

Arsenal's Lia Walti (centre) in action with Brighton's Libby Bance (left) and Julia Zigiotti during their Women's Super League match (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)

Eidevall also opened up about forming a relationship with the Arsenal boys' academy teams, adding: “We managed to play a game behind closed doors against our U15s which was very beneficial for us.

"It was also very good to connect with our academy coaches on the men’s side and that is where we are now looking to see whether we can do it more often, whether it is a game or just a practice. For us that will decrease the time and space we have to improve our positioning and decision making.

“It’s all about reactions but it’s also about being really, really good in your positioning. That is what is recognisable about the way we play, we are so much better for always having players behind the ball when we play forward so that if the play breaks down, we can close down quickly. It’s about practicing to get the reactions right but it’s also about getting the positioning right.

"When we play against boys, our positioning needs to be better because we don’t have as much time to react so that drives the positioning more. With some teams maybe we could just beat on pure talent but for us to develop as a team, our positioning needs to be spot on every time so we build that foundation.

"We have done that much more since the spring so we can have that in combination with the immense talent that we have.”

On the team’s performances since February looking quite similar, Eidevall said: “I think the only period in that time was the second half of the FA Cup semi-final which I didn’t like, apart from that, from February onwards and maybe Manchester City away, I feel like we have stability in our performances which comes from stability in the way that we play.

"Maybe that makes us predictable but I think it also makes it easier for us to execute in a good way and to move the ball in the right way, so we are very happy with that.”