Principles part 2

‘I made a mistake. I thought our principles were strong enough so I focused on the game plan. I should have focused more on our principles.’ These were Jonas Eidevall’s words in the days following the 2021 FA Cup Final defeat to Chelsea in December 2021 when Arsenal were blown away 3-0 at Wembley and Manuela Zinsberger helped to keep the scoreline respectable.

Fast forward two and a half years and Arsenal are licking their wounds from a 3-1 reverse to Chelsea which could have been much worse but for a series of second half saves from Manuela Zinsberger. ‘What you have to give to Chelsea is that the players they have upfront, if they get time and space and run against you, they are world class.

‘You can’t let Chelsea do that that many times like they did today and expect a good result.’ That was in answer to a question from Arseblog News at Wembley in December 2021. On Friday night, Eidevall said, ‘They have a lot of players facing forwards and they are ruthless with the opportunities they have. I do think when you look back at the first half they almost score with all opportunities, they are very effective with that and we are poor at dealing with it.

‘To turn over the ball that many times and to be that poor in our defensive organisation then we cannot expect to win the game.’ I asked Eidevall whether the manner of the defeat on Friday was a planning failure or an execution failure. ‘It is always the coach, it is always the coach that needs to prepare that better.’

Eidevall did not shy away from accountability for either chastening defeat. The difference, on this occasion, is that this is the third season of his reign and such aberrations are less justifiable. Of course, every team can have a bad day. Chelsea had a bad day in the reverse fixture in December. But context is key and that that remains Chelsea’s only defeat of the season so far.

Earlier in the campaign, I wrote about what I saw as Eidevall’s main challenge this season, retaining principles of play while inducting a lot of new players and dealing with a vastly bigger squad. I have said many times that I always felt this season would be slightly transitional given the amount of squad turnover over the last 12-18 months.

On Friday night, the ‘newest’ player in the starting line-up was Victoria Pelova, who joined the club in January 2023. Zinsberger, Williamson, Catley, McCabe, Wubben-Moy, Walti, Mead, Little and Foord all started the game and all were at the club the day Eidevall was appointed. Yet there was little sense of cohesion or of a set of core principles. If anything, this was the least aggressive I have seen Arsenal in terms of counter pressure since Eidevall’s appointment.

If we are honest, the number of emphatic performances this season have not been numerous. Chelsea and Manchester United at home in the WSL, Brighton away was good, the second half against Leicester was strong, Aston Villa in the Conti Cup semi-finals was an excellent performance. Even the 3-0 home win over West Ham in the WSL in November saw the visitors outrank Arsenal on XG. Victories over Aston Villa (WSL), Bristol City, Everton, Spurs and away at Liverpool have ranged from ok to labouring.

It begs the question as to whether it is squad rotation, or initiating new players that has really been the challenge this season or whether the core principles of play are strong enough. Are Arsenal trying to run when they haven’t nailed walking yet? The most creditable periods of Eidevall’s tenure so far have been his first few months in the autumn of 2021, when Arsenal transitioned from the possession football of Joe Montemurro into more of a direct, counterpressing style.

At this point, Arsenal were probably more of a surprise to their opponents. The second most creditable period of Eidevall’s reign was last spring, when an injury decimated squad moved to a back three formation and secured third place ahead of Manchester City in the WSL and got within a whisker of the Champions League Final.

Eidevall changed the system and played necessity football, sitting Jen Beattie in the middle of a back three because the midfield and forward line were stripped bare by injuries. It wasn’t a sustainable way of playing and I think everyone understood that at the time, it was a set of jump cables to get a broken engine firing again.

In his final press conference of the season last May, Eidevall said he knew he had a flair for crisis management. ‘I am usually humble but I know what I am good at, I know I am good at finding solutions.’ In the same press conference though, he outlined the challenge of finding the sort of consistency needed to win the biggest prizes.

‘Our next challenge is something I would call game craft. How can you control a game? During a season there are going to be lots of different types of games, maybe away games on bad pitches where referees don’t see anything that happens to Arsenal. But nobody remembers that, you still need to come away with three points.’

In the comments section on Arseblog News after the Chelsea defeat, one of our regular commenters said, ‘I would define Jonas’ reign as a failure to launch.’ For the first half of the season I was semi-satisfied with the explanation that Arsenal were integrating new players and it would take some time for things to settle down. That is a more difficult argument to justify in March, especially on the back of a chastening defeat that features no new signings.

So the question for me now is less about squad rotation, about balancing priorities and about using players as tools for different game plans (something I think Eidevall is good at). The question now is whether the principles, the foundations are strong and obvious enough for players to learn, understand and absorb as muscle memory.

Do Arsenal have an identifiable enough basis to win most games when they are 6 or 7/10? Do they have muscle memory to draw on? I prefer to avoid the term ‘back to basics’ but I do wonder whether I too made a mistake in focusing on increased options as the biggest challenge of the season because I took the principles for granted.