No team in WSL history has won the league after losing more than two games. By the 90th minute of the Arsenal versus Aston Villa match, our Gunner women were on course to suffer their second defeat of the season, trailling 1-0 to Aston Villa at the Emirates, leaving us feeling that our title chances were slipping away from us.
However, Katie McCabe equalized in the second minute of extra time before Beth Mead clipped the ball back to Alessia Russo, who scored the game-winning goal two minutes later in Beth’s first game since her injury last year.
Katie McCabe and coach Jonas Eidevall all agreed on one thing that saw them win: They pointed out that they as a team have a strong mentality and a never-say-never attitude that helped them win a game they were losing.
“It was an unbelievable team performance,” said McCabe during her post-match interview. “We played right til the very end, and I think it shows the mentality in this team.
“The girls coming off the bench and making the impact they did, and you know what, 35,000 fans here to cheer us on at the Emirates was unbelievable, so we’re just delighted to get the win for them today.”
On his part, Jonas Eidevall, seeing his team score twice in extra time to change the narrative, said, “That’s mentality all the way through. Like, are we happy to just get a 1-1 at home? No, of course not. We can’t be. That can’t be us. That can’t be what we’re aiming for. We need to go for three points, and I think that we were all very aligned on that. It’s three points or nothing.”
Anyway, Eidevall hopes they will build on the win over Villa and turn things around, as they aim to fight for the league. Up next, our girls play Bristol City, and about that game, our Swedish tactician said,
“We started the fire now. Now we need to keep it going. It’s a really important week, and it’s a really important game to do that.”
On a weekend that some Gooners thought would be boring with Arteta and the boys weren’t playing because of the international break, our Gunner women certainly gave us a great spectacle, and our goals only came after Beth Mead was cheered onto the pitch.
Michelle Maxwell
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