Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall has warned his side must be cautious against Brighton's attacking threat when they travel to the south coast club on Wednesday evening.
The Gunners are currently fourth in the WSL table, but have two games in hand over both Manchester clubs. Brighton, on the other hand, are edging closer to safety after their win over West Ham last time out. If they were to get anything from Arsenal midweek, it would massively boost their survival hopes and all but confirm their top-flight status next season.
Eidevall's side kept the pace in the title race on Friday evening with a narrow 1-0 win over Leicester City. It was a game that could've presented itself as a banana skin for Arsenal after their UEFA Women's Champions League heartbreak midweek, but they showed no signs of a European hangover as they got themselves over the line.
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Every game will be a cup final between now and the end of the season and the Arsenal boss expects an equally difficult test on Wednesday against the Seagulls.
"This game is a really tough challenge for us," he told the media on Tuesday. "It's an away game against a tough opponent. We can't have our minds in any other place other than this game."
On Brighton's prospect of securing safety and the added danger that could present, he added "We also have a lot to play for. I don't mind (what's at stake for them), we should be fully motivated. I also expect my opponents to be fully motivated.
"Scoring goals hasn't been their problem for the whole season. I think we've seen that, even before Christmas. They have some great individual players that can contribute with assists and goals.
"They have a really good squad of attacking players so we have to be cautious. We have to defend really well against them and that's going to be one of the keys for the game tomorrow."
Brighton have picked up two wins and a draw from their last four WSL games under newly-appointed manager Melissa Phillips. They are now five points clear of safety with a game in hand, which is a huge turnaround for a team that found themselves bottom of the standings only a matter of weeks ago.
The previous meeting between the two teams at Meadow Park back in September ended in a comfortable 4-0 win for the Gunners. Brighton had a player sent off inside the opening 10 minutes and Kim Little, Stina Blackstenius and Beth Mead contributed to the goals on the day.
Kick-off on Wednesday is at 7:30pm and the game will be shown live on Sky Sports.
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