Jonas Eidevall admits Arsenal first half display vs Man City among worst of his tenure

Jonas Eidevall took full responsibility for Arsenal's performance in their 2-1 defeat to Man City in the WSL on Saturday, admitting that the first half display was among the worst of his tenure.

Having beaten Man City 1-0 in the Continental Cup semi finals on Wednesday evening, Eidevall stuck with the unorthodox back three formation that had been so successful at Meadow Park three days earlier.

However, Arsenal were completely out of sorts in the first 45, cheaply conceding possession deep in their own half on multiple occasions as City raced into a 2-0 lead at the break.

"It's 100% my responsibility that we don't win today, so that I'm taking," Eidevall told Sky Sports at full time. "Of course that's my responsibility and trying to implement changes during the game, but it's 100% my responsibility.

"I think we lost possession way too many times in the game, especially in very dangerous areas. If that's the formation or the positioning we have at the time, we need to review that of course but when you lose possession in those dangerous areas so many times it's going to be very difficult to win football matches."

The Gunners reverted back to a back four in the second half and were all the better for it, pulling a goal back with half an hour remaining through a Rafaelle header.

However, Eidevall's side could not find an equaliser and were left cursing their first half display.

Lauren Hemp had been allowed to ghost unmarked to the back post to tap home City's opener, before Lotte Wubben-Moy surrendered possession on the edge of her own box as Chloe Kelly doubled the host's advantage.

"It unfortunately has competition with our first 45 minutes against Chelsea in the [2021] FA Cup final but those two there are absolutely up there unfortunately," Eidevall replied when asked if it was Arsenal's worst first half showing since he took charge in the summer of 2021.

"And that's why we're so sad - we had a great travelling support, we wanted to give them much more joy than we did today. I want to thank them for their support, even when we were playing badly they were still singing for us, giving us all the support and encouragement, and maybe we didn't even deserve that."