Jonas Eidevall was left admiring a ‘brutally efficient’ Chelsea, after Arsenal again saw a series of chances go begging against the Blues during their 2-0 FA Cup defeat on Sunday.
Arsenal dominated for much of the first half at Kingsmeadow, with Ann-Katrin Berger pulling off a number of fine saves to deny Frida Maanum, Katie McCabe and Caitlin Foord. Stina Blackstenius also blazed a glorious opportunity over when one-v-one.
The Gunners were made to pay as Chelsea took the lead with their first real sighting of goal through Sophie Ingle. Sam Kerr added a second 10 minutes into the second half to condemn Arsenal to a fifth round FA Cup exit.
It was a similar story to the pair’s WSL meeting at the Emirates a month earlier, where Arsenal again created numerous clear openings, only to concede a last gasp equaliser.
“That (Chelsea taking their chances and Arsenal not) is my story of this game, yes,” Eidevall said. “If that is too simple I apologise, but that is how I see this game. It is not normal or ordinary to have so many more goal scoring opportunities than Chelsea at Kingsmeadow.
“I don’t expect us to come here and create more than we did, we created enough in order to win the game. But they are brutally efficient, hats off to them, we are not.”
Arsenal registered 20 shots over the course of the 90 minutes – 11 of which were on target – but drew a blank for the second time in four matches. Chelsea had just seven shots, scoring with two of their three on target.
It is the third time since the turn of the year that Arsenal were left rueing their missed opportunities, following January’s draw with Chelsea and February’s frustrating stalemate against West Ham.
“It is about creating the environment in putting players in those situations in training so they can make it a habit and not over think it,” Eidevall said of his side’s recent goal scoring record. “To keep on going, going, going.
“A lot of times players think they need to do differently but it’s just small details. I would be worried if it was players I had never seen score before, these are players that know they can score a lot of goals so it’s easier to keep that belief.”
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Credit: 90min.com
