Everton manager Brian Sørensen says that a trip to Arsenal is one of the toughest challenges of the season but his side will go to North London to play their own brand of football.
The Blue Girls face Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Everton have struggled against the Barclays Women’s Super League’s elite, although they did take a point against The Gunners last season.
When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Everton boss Sørensen highlighted the enormity of this weekend’s task. As ever, the Merseysiders will not go out to simply try to defend for a draw.
“Arsenal are a really well-coached side that are organised and hard to play against,” Sørensen said. “They have extremely good talent in their squad, key players that know the game really well after playing a lot of seasons in this league.
“It’s one of the toughest challenges that you can face and on top of that, it’s at the Emirates.
“It’s a big task but as always, we prepare to set the team up to get something out of the game. We will set up the team to win rather than defend for 90 minutes because that’s not our identity, it’s not what we want to do.
“We know it’s going to be extremely tough. We need to click and be ready for the task and the problems that they’ll give us.”
Everton performed better on their travels last season. The Blue Girls were particularly successful at main stadiums such as Anfield, Villa Park and the Amex Stadium. Sørensen highlighted that fact and he is hoping that his side can replicate last season’s performances at the Emirates Stadium.
He said “I don’t think we lost a game at a big stadium [last season], we have a decent record. We haven’t played at the Emirates before but for some reason, we look more calm and relaxed [in big stadiums]. I don’t know the reason but I’m happy that we looked cool and composed. I think it might be the no pressure thing that nobody expects anything from us, so why not just go and give everything we have with our strengths and see where that takes us.
“We are also not naive, we know it’s going to be extremely tough and we will be under pressure. The only thing we can control is our performance and our preparation.”
Everton’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Arsenal kicks-off at 2pm on Sunday afternoon.
