Vivianne Miedema: ‘With our new signings, Arsenal can surprise people’
“To be honest, I’m not really excited for any USA players to come into our team,” says Vivianne Miedema, deadpan in tone but with a wry smile. “It will just remind me of the Olympics.”
The Women’s Super League’s record goalscorer is speaking shortly after the announcement that Tobin Heath, the two-time World Cup-winning forward, will be joining her at Arsenal after a season with Manchester United. At the Tokyo Olympics Miedema scored 10 goals and was the tournament’s top scorer but the Netherlands exited at the quarter-final stage, losing on penalties to the US, who also got the better of them in the 2019 World Cup final.
Miedema missed the first penalty but had scored twice in normal time, the first to put the Dutch ahead and the second to draw them level and force extra time after the US scored twice in three minutes to take the lead.
“I felt really good, everyone has seen that in every game I played. But as a team, just starting the tournament we felt like something wasn’t the way it should be. In the first games you could cover that up with just outscoring the opponent, but then that stopped. It was disappointing to go out in the quarters because more was possible against the US and we didn’t manage to finish them off.”
Miedema and her teammates had heard Heath would be joining the Gunners but they were told on the morning the club revealed the Arsenal fan had signed. “If you look at her experience and what she’s done in football it is amazing to have someone like that at the club,” says Miedema. “On the pitch, off the pitch, she’s only going to help us. She’ll definitely bring something extra and something special to the team.”
Heath will not be available to play against the defending champions, Chelsea, in Arsenal’s Women’s Super League opener on Sunday but the American is not the only creative talent to have arrived. Arsenal, who in May appointed the Swede Jonas Eidevall to succeed Joe Montemurro as manager, have been busy. The England forward Nikita Parris, Frida Maanum of Norway and Japan’s Mana Iwabuchi have been signed. The last of those names played with Miedema at Bayern Munich and in February could be seen leaping into the arms of the centre-forward after Arsenal played Aston Villa, Iwabuchi’s club from January to May.
“Mana is one of my best mates off the pitch but she’s also one of the only players in my career where within a session at Bayern that click was there,” says Miedema. “We just understand each other, we feel each other and from an individual perspective that’s going to help me this season.”
The arrival of these players to assist the front line helps lift the pressure on Miedema, who has been heavily relied on as Arsenal have struggled with a lack of squad depth and numerous injury crises in recent years. “I played every single minute last season, which at one point became quite a lot,” she says. “For us to make a couple [of] signings that can also play either as a nine or we can switch things around is nice for me.
“We needed that quality, everyone saw last year that we weren’t good enough and with the signings we have made I hope we can surprise a lot of people.”
The new players have helped to raise the level in training, but it is “also a case of finally having a squad of 18 fit players”, she says. “We haven’t had that in three, three and a half years, which is really frustrating, and it is hard to then continue to train at a certain level.
“With the new coach coming in almost every single player feels like they need to prove themselves again to be able to play.”
The signings have come after an extensive internal review of the women’s setup, which has led to increased investment, more medical and operations staff, a nutritionist and the introduction of an individual development coach, as well as increased access to facilities at the club’s London Colney training ground and plans to build a new women’s football building.
“You can see that changes have been made. We can also feel we still need other changes to happen and that it is not a done project yet, but hopefully it’s going in the right direction,” says the 25-year-old.
Having players involved in those discussions is vital. “We need to perform on the pitch and last season and the season before that we’ve probably been too busy trying to take care of things off the pitch. With more people in place hopefully they can improve that and we can focus on what we need to do on the pitch.”
Another result of the review is that Sunday’s match with Chelsea is the first of a number of fixtures being played at the Emirates Stadium this season. Arsenal are one of the few in the WSL not to have hosted the women’s team at the club’s main stadium.
“It’s good but it’s also about time,” says Miedema. “If not now, then when? We’re happy that we get to play there but sometimes we should be expecting those things a lot sooner than when they happen. We have spoken about that with the club and I’m happy that it’s finally happening.”
Promoted Leicester have made the ambitious commitment of playing eight of their 11 home fixtures (those that do not clash with men’s games) at the King Power and Miedema is impressed. “I love them coming in and just doing that straight away,” she says. “That’s an example of how the other teams should be.
“Speaking to a lot of girls across a lot of different clubs, facilities and everything are getting better but it’s still not there. Leicester coming in and playing at the men’s training ground, playing the games at the King Power is the next step and how it should be.”
With one year left on her contract, Miedema is open about her future at Arsenal. “I’ve always said to the media, to the club, to everyone, what I expect from myself but also from the club and which direction they need to head in.
“At the moment it is promising with the girls coming in,” she says. “We’ve got a better squad than we had last season and I will take it from there. I’m not going to make a decision right now. As long as I’ve got an Arsenal shirt on I’ll give anything and everything for the club.
“Everyone knows that even this summer I would have been open to something. Going into this season I’m open-minded. I hope it’s going to be a great season because it will make the decision a lot easier, but if not then we’ll need to move on.”
Playing at the Emirates? It's good, but it's also about time