Arsenal Women boss Jonas Eidevall says he is pleased with Swedish striker Stina Blackstenius’ return to goal scoring form but that he is not only evaluating her performances by goals scored.

Blackstenius is the only orthodox striker in the squad and the injuries to Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema have led to an increased spotlight on her.

However, she bagged the winning goal in the Conti Cup semi-final against Manchester City and has now scored in consecutive games, equalising in the Conti Cup Final against Chelsea before opening the scoring against Liverpool on Wednesday evening.

“There are so many things in football about what makes a performance both on an individual and collective level,” Eidevall said. “We are focusing on a lot of things in everyone’s games and it’s the same with Stina.

“It is great that she has scored two really important goals for us but she is doing so many other things that are contributing to the team and it’s the focus on keeping on doing those things to be successful individually and on a team level.

“We are very happy for her scoring goals but there are so many other ways we evaluate a player’s performance for us and not only with goals.”

The Gunners face Reading at 6.45pm on Sunday at Meadow Park with fellow title challengers Chelsea and Manchester United playing one another at lunchtime. Arsenal trail Chelsea by five points and Manchester United by six points, though they have a game in hand on Marc Skinner’s side.

Eidevall insists he and his squad won’t be paying any attention to the game as they gear up for the visit of Kelly Chambers’ Reading. “We just focus on our game. I think there are going to be a lot of factors that we cannot control.

“We have enough to focus on that we can control. It is a recipe for success to let everything else around us be noise and focus on the controllables for us.

“That is what we need to stay successful on. On game day the only focus is on the opponent and to execute our game plan.”

Arseblog News also asked Eidevall whether there was any update on Lia Wälti’s contract situation, the Swiss midfielder’s deal expires in the summer.

Eidevall, as expected, remained tight-lipped. “We don’t comment on individual situations and when we have something to communicate we will do so through the official channels.”

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