Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall has told his squad to take inspiration from speed skater Steven Bradbury as they bid to keep pace with Chelsea and Manchester City in the WSL title race.
The Gunners are third and four points off leaders Chelsea and Manchester City with just four games to go.
A first title since 2019 looks extremely unlikely, but Eidevall has urged his squad to not throw in the towel as they prepare to host Leicester at Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
The Arsenal boss is taking inspiration from Australian speed skater Steven Bradbury, who famously won Olympic gold in 2002 when all of his fellow competitors slipped right before the finish line.
Eidevall was shown the famous footage by his Australian assistant coach, Aaron D’Antino, and he has used it to reinforce to his squad that they cannot let up now.
“I think it is about the mentality to always do your best, to never give up, that’s one thing,” said Eidevall.
“My assistant coach, Aaron, who is from Australia, he showed me the video of the Australian speed skater in the Winter Olympics, that was last in the final and then everybody slips and he goes first over the line.
“The thing is, are you ready if someone else slips? Are you ready then? Or have you already given up because you didn’t think that was going to happen?
“I think that is a mindset thing and that’s why it is so important to always do your best. You can’t really control what other teams do. There is a lot of external factors that you can’t control either.
“But what you can control is your own actions and in business they call that to have a return on luck, to make sure that you position yourself that if you get in that moment, will your return be a lot? I think that is what we need to work with.
“Secondly, I think for all what we are trying to build, this is also really important in being the first chapter of the new season also.
“So when we speak about being consistent, when we speak about being the team that we want to be, this is an excellent opportunity for us in all the games that we have left to both work and to showcase that.
“So for me, we have so much motivation here in the last games of the season.”
