Arsenal celebrate their third goal in the Continental League Cup Final win over Chelsea in front of 19,000 fans at Selhurst Park [James Whitehead/SPP]

ARSENAL boss Jonas Eidevall has said the “phenomenal” reaction to his team’s Continental Tyres League Cup final triumph can drive them on to even greater things.

The Gunners stormed back from behind to beat Chelsea 3-1 in front of a record crowd of more than 19,000 at Selhurst Park on Sunday.

Star Australian forward Sam Kerr had put Emma Hayes’ team ahead after just two minutes. But their London rivals hit back through a Stina Blackstenius strike, a Kim Little penalty and an own goal, all in the first half.

The victory ended Arsenal’s four-year trophy drought, with fans responding in their tens of thousands to the club’s celebratory posts on social media in the days since.

And Eidevall, who said on Sunday that he was “lost for words” at the support in the stadium, acknowledged the response when he met the press in midweek.

“It’s a lot of positive reactions,” he said. “We know Arsenal is a massive club and it affects a huge amount of people and we feel that responsibility.

“It’s a great feeling that we can bring happiness to a lot of people. The response has been phenomenal and it pushes both me and the team on to try and achieve more good things in the future.”

With Arsenal still chasing silverware on both the domestic and European fronts, it is the games yet to come that now occupy their 40-year-old head coach.

“I don’t stay in the past for very long because I don’t think that’s a great sign if you want to have success in the future,” he said. “My job is to get the team focused for the next match.”

That was, of course, last night’s (Wednesday) Women’s Super League clash with Liverpool.

This Sunday brings a home WSL tie with Reading, then the Gunners will see no further action until March 21 when they face Bayern Munich in a Champions League quarter-final at the Allianz Arena.

Eidevall says the uninterrupted week his players had on the training pitch ahead of the League Cup final played a “massive part” in their performance on the day.

But he fully believes that even with the vastly differing preparation times for the next two games to come, Arsenal can cope.

“You have to do the best with what’s in front of you and that’s one of the challenges that we have,” he said.

“I like to think that we can handle all those situations.”

Little makes a big impact

Kim Little [Catherine Etoe]

MIDFIELDER Kim Little won all the plaudits after grabbing the League Cup final by the scruff of the neck and turning the tie in Arsenal’s favour.

“When you thought she couldn’t get better, she puts on that performance,” purred Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall.

“She played close to a perfect match. It’s the trait of a great player to have a performance like that when it matters the most.”

Back in 2011, a 21-year-old Little was part of the Arsenal team that won the inaugural WSL Continental Cup trophy in a Rachel Yankey-inspired victory over Birmingham City.

On Sunday, it was the turn of 32-year-old Little to dominate the final on the way to securing the 14th trophy of her two spells in Arsenal colours. It certainly capped a fine week for the team captain – she collected an MBE for services to football two days earlier.