Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall believes he was “lucky” that the fallout from the League Cup final with Emma Hayes was recorded amid the Chelsea boss’ claims of “male aggression”, adding that the incident “cast a dark shadow” on the triumph.
Hayes slammed the Gunners boss for his alleged “inappropriate” touchline antics during Chelsea’s Conti Cup final defeat, adding that his show of “male aggression” should have resulted in a dismissal.
At the final whistle, Eidevall and Hayes appeared to engage in a small fracas, with Hayes shoving her opposite number away and pointing her finger accusingly. Tensions had flared earlier after Eidevall appeared to enter into a confrontation with Chelsea midfielder Erin Cuthbert over a disagreement on throw-in protocol.
Eidevall called the comments “irresponsible” in his post-match press conference. Hayes received no punishment for her actions from the Football Association.
And with nearly two weeks gone, the Arsenal boss said he has not spoken with Hayes since the incident and that he was not surprised by the show of impunity from the FA.
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“Not really, but I’ve not thought so much about it,” he said. “I thought the comments were very irresponsible and they were not mirroring the conduct that I had in the technical area. Basically that’s all I think about it. The other parts - when we shake hands after the game - that’s a very minor incident. For me that’s nothing.”
Asked whether the comments might be dangerous in painting the perception of a man “in a woman’s world ”, Eidevall said: “When you’re a leader you have to be very good with your words, you need to understand both the consequences of your actions and your language. It’s really important that we treat each other with respect and stay with facts as much as possible and not get too emotional.”
He added: “It’s never nice when people say something about you that you don’t think is true. Maybe that’s where I’m lucky in that everything I do is recorded. So for me, it’s not my opinion or someone else’s opinion, everything is recorded so I need to be accountable for my actions, and in these situations I am accountable with that. I am happy with the way I conducted myself and I wouldn’t do anything differently if I could do it again.”
Eidevall said he was disappointed that the day’s events overshadowed Arsenal’s League Cup title defence. "It was obviously such a nice moment for both the team and the club to win the second trophy in two consecutive seasons and in the way that we did it with players performances I thought was incredible,” he said. “But surrounding the noise, that was a real pity.”
He added: "If there is only one thing that I think had some dark shadow over that game is that they didn't get fully in the spotlight they deserved."
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