sport news KATHRYN BATTE: Emma Hayes was wrong for shoving Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall ... trends now

It started with a knee drop and ended with a shove. The Emma Hayes v Jonas Eidevall rivalry is over and we are all left wanting more.

There will be some who view what happened in the aftermath of the League Cup final on Sunday as unacceptable.

Arsenal boss Eidevall arguing with Chelsea midfielder Erin Cuthbert, Hayes responding by pushing him after the full-time whistle. The type of stuff people say they do not want to see, when in reality it is the type of stuff everybody wants to see. Passion, fireworks and drama. Managers are not robots after all.

As the dust settles over this international break, which has come at a good time for Hayes, she will realise she was wrong. She was wrong to push Eidevall and she was wrong to label his touchline behaviour as ‘male aggression’.

There is no doubt Eidevall can be a nuisance. A ‘pain in the backside’ is how Hayes described him before their league meeting three weeks ago. He can be animated, over the top and, if you are his opponent, incredibly irritating.

The argument on Sunday stemmed from Cuthbert reaching for the closest ball in sight, rather than the one that had gone out of play, when taking a throw-in in the final minute.

Eidevall rushed over and shouted, arguing that the original ball had to be used. He explained after the game that Chelsea had refused the option of having a multi-ball system and he was pointing out they could not have it both ways. Cuthbert angrily walked towards Eidevall, who stood his ground. Hayes called it fronting up and this is why, she says, she lost her cool.

When the full-time whistle blew, crowning Arsenal League Cup champions for a second season in a row, Eidevall approached Hayes for a handshake. The Chelsea boss pointed at him, made a passing remark, then shoved him away.

Asked about the incident afterwards, Hayes said she was ‘not down for male aggression’ and called Eidevall’s touchline behaviour ‘unacceptable.’ He responded by calling Hayes 'irresponsible’ and a bad loser.

The problem for Hayes is that it is difficult to call somebody else aggressive when you have pushed somebody in front of the TV cameras. If the tables were turned, Eidevall would have come under intense scrutiny for having laid hands on an opponent. Hayes has gotten away lightly.

‘I don’t think we need to make a massive story out of it, the problem is you’re going to,’ Hayes said. ‘I don’t want the talking point to be about that.’

One suspects that if Hayes did not want her altercation with Eidevall to be the

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