by Andrew Crawshaw
Who? I hear you ask in the traditional supporters greeting to an unknown substitute for the opposition.
Jonas is the new Arsenal Women Head Coach and joins us from Swedish team FC Rosengård. A Swede, his English is excellent (judging from the interviews released this morning on arsenal.com). He is 38 years old
All of his coaching experience has been in his native Sweden. Aged just 23 he became assistant coach at Men’s second division team Lunds BK becoming head coach three and a half years later and guiding them to the Division 2 title in 2009. He transferred to the Women’s game in 2012 when he joined Rosengård as assistant coach taking over as their head coach a year later. He guided them to the league titles in both his first two years in charge.
He has a further brief dalliance with the Men’s game as assistant to Henrik Larsson at Helsingorgs before returning to Rosengård where they won the 2018 Swedish cup and in 2019 regained the League title. The Damallsvenskan is a summer league and teams are currently half way into the competition.
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rosengard | 10 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 23 | 2 | +21 | 28 |
| 2 | Hacken | 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 24 | 5 | +19 | 20 |
| 3 | Kristianstads | 10 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 16 | 8 | +8 | 19 |
| 4 | Hammarby | 10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 23 | 14 | +9 | 18 |
| 5 | Linkoping | 9 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 11 | 10 | +1 | 13 |
| 6 | Eskilstuna U. | 10 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 9 | 10 | -1 | 13 |
| 7 | Vittsjo W | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 8 | +2 | 12 |
| 8 | Orebro W | 9 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 15 | -7 | 10 |
| 9 | AIK | 10 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 30 | -21 | 9 |
| 10 | Djurgarden | 9 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 15 | -8 | 7 |
| 11 | Pitea W | 10 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 20 | -13 | 7 |
| 12 | Vaxjo W | 10 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 13 | -10 | 3 |
2021 Damallsvenskan league table
Rosengård are unbeaten, averaging over two goals a game and well in the lead for the title.
In last year’s Champions League round of 32 Rosengård played Georgian side Lanchkhuti winning the two legs of the tie by 7 – 0 and 10 – 0. In the round of 16 they played the Austrian side St Polten drawing 2 – 2 in the first leg before winning the second leg 2 – 0. In the quarter final they came up against Bayern Munich losing both legs for an aggregate 4 – 0. Nothing terribly surprising there. Rosengård’s resources being greater than the Georgian and Austrian teams but significantly less than the Germans.
Jonas’s record marks him as an experienced and capable coach but there can be little doubt that Arsenal should be a step up. It will be interesting to see how he settles in as a quick start to the season will be required.
Arsenal FC have described Jonas as the outstanding candidate amongst those interviewed and as a dedicated follower of the Women’s game I can only hope they have got the appointment right as in my opinion he has a number of significant issues to address.
1: We haven’t pushed on as I would have liked in the last couple of years despite an extremely talented (but small) squad.
2: Under our previous head coach Joe Montemurro we have found ourselves bullied too often by opposition teams particularly Chelsea in the league and PSG the last time we played them in the Champions League.
3: We have a terrible injury record with us frequently being unable to have a full subs bench.
4: We seem unable to retain our younger players when they reach the age of 17 to 18. All too frequently they leave to join other English clubs or travel to the USA on sports scholarships.
5: Vivianne Miedema has one year left on her contract. She is one of the finest players in the world and retaining her will be a key to our progress in the future.
So welcome Jonas Eidevall, you have a lot to do and I really you can take us to the next level.
And as a reminder, here is how last season ended…
| P | Team | GP | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chelsea Women | 22 | 18 | 3 | 1 | 69 | 10 | 59 | 57 |
| 2 | Man City Women | 22 | 17 | 4 | 1 | 65 | 13 | 52 | 55 |
| 3 | Arsenal Women | 22 | 15 | 3 | 4 | 63 | 15 | 48 | 48 |
| 4 | Man Utd Women | 22 | 15 | 2 | 5 | 44 | 20 | 24 | 47 |
| 5 | Everton Women | 22 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 39 | 30 | 9 | 32 |
| 6 | Brighton & Hove Albion Women | 22 | 8 | 3 | 11 | 21 | 41 | -20 | 27 |
| 7 | Reading Wome | 22 | 5 | 9 | 8 | 25 | 41 | -16 | 24 |
| 8 | Tottenham Hotspur Women | 22 | 5 | 5 | 12 | 18 | 41 | -23 | 20 |
| 9 | West Ham Women | 22 | 3 | 6 | 13 | 21 | 39 | -18 | 15 |
| 10 | Aston Villa Women | 22 | 3 | 6 | 13 | 15 | 47 | -32 | 15 |
| 11 | Birmingham City Women | 22 | 3 | 6 | 13 | 15 | 44 | -29 | 14 |
| 12 | Bristol City Women | 22 | 2 | 6 | 14 | 18 | 72 | -54 | 12 |
The Glorious 2021 Revolution
- Arsenal only did well after Xmas because the fixtures were much easier
- Why Arsenal absolutely must not “allow the players to play”
- How Arteta gave us a hint of what he was about to do, but we missed it.
- For the last two thirds of last season, Arsenal were a top two club
- The audacious tactical change that sent Arsenal charging up the league table
- Figures from Football Observatory at the end of the season showing Arsenal players dominating the statistics.
