'Very sad' - Arsenal captain Kim Little and interim coach Renee Slegers react to Jonas Eidevall's resignation after Chelsea defeat continued Gunners' poor start to WSL season

Eidevall stepped down from the role on Tuesday, following a 2-1 defeat to Chelsea on Saturday. It meant the Gunners had won just one of their first four games in the new Women's Super League season, a record further damaged by a 5-2 thrashing at the hands of Bayern Munich in the Champions League last week.

Eidevall had been in charge since the start of the 2021-22 season but his debut campaign in north London was the only one in which Arsenal really challenged for the WSL title. In the past two years, the Gunners have finished third, eventually some way off table-topping Chelsea. As such, the aim this year was to improve there and win the league, but a disappointing start has made that ambition very difficult.

Eidevall's resignation now gives the Gunners another obstacle to conquer, as they prepare to face Valerenga in the Champions League on Wednesday, and West Ham in the WSL on Sunday, under the interim charge of Renee Slegers.

"I spoke to him yesterday afternoon, got shocked by the news and was very sad because he's been a good leader for the staff," Slegers said on Tuesday. "I've worked with him before in Sweden and we worked really well together and I'm very sad that it got to this point."

Little, the club captain, added: "We got made aware this morning in our team meeting, before we went out to train. Like Renee said, a bit sad. Jonas has been our leader for the last three years and he's obviously made the choice to step away just now. We have a huge amount of respect for him. Now as a group of players, as part of a leadership group, we have to get the players together. It's a big change but we need to move forward now change our focus to what will be tomorrow's game.

"A strength of maybe what Jonas has left is that there is the foundations here and this incredible club has got everything in place for us to succeed," Little continued. "We move forward with that and we focus and bring the group together, leading into our second Champions League group game tomorrow, which is a really important one. It's just bringing everyone together and refocusing. Ultimately, our job is to get out there and play as players, and that's what we need to focus on."

Arsenal are in a very tricky Champions League group and that includes Valerenga. While the Norwegian side may be seen as the weakest team in the group, after Bayern Munich and Juventus, they have won 19 of their last 20 competitive games. The only outlier in that run was a narrow 1-0 loss at home to Juve last week.

The Gunners will need to bounce back from the defeats to Chelsea and Bayern and the loss of their coach quickly then, if they are to get their first points on the board in the UWCL group stage. The club, meanwhile, will now begin the search for Eidevall's replacement.