Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall defends goalkeeper Manuela Zinsberger following poor West Ham error and warns against Gunners creating 'culture of fear'

Austrian international Zinsberger made a costly mistake in West Ham's shock comeback 2-1 win over Arsenal last weekend in the Women's Super League. But rather than criticising the 28-year-old, manager Eidevall has encouraged her to continue to be proactive between the sticks.

When asked how the club had responded to the keeper's error, Eidevall told Arseblog: "Support. We work with athletes that try their best in every situation in the game and we see at all levels of the game that sometimes mistakes happen. The worst thing you can do when those mistakes happen is react in a way where you say it is not acceptable. Because what you create is a culture of fear and fear of making mistakes and that is not the football that we want to play.

"We want to be a brave team that takes initiative and we want to be a team to dares to play out against pressure, that dares to solve situations. If you are going to have a chance of being that team you have to have a culture of bravery. That means mistakes are going to be a part of it. The player that never does anything will never commit clear mistakes but the biggest mistake you can make is to be passive and not to take initiative. So we keep going and keep doing our best and as long as everyone is doing their very best, that is all I ask."

While Arsenal appear to be developing a supportive environment at the club, that loss to lowly West Ham left them six points adrift of league leaders and defending WSL champions Chelsea. If they want to dethrone the Blues, they can ill afford to suffer defeats like this again.

Arsenal will face Manchester City in a FA Cup fifth round clash on Sunday before hosting Manchester United on February 17 in the league.