The Arsenal manager, Jonas Eidevall, described the chance to lead his team out in the FA Cup final at Wembley as “surreal” so soon into his tenure and reserved praise for the groundwork laid by Joe Montemurro. “It’s a little bit surreal to be honest, you never imagine you will have the chance to win a trophy or be successful so soon,” Eidevall said. “The closest I’ve come to being at Wembley was when I bought tickets for Adele a few years ago but then my wife and I couldn’t go. I’m definitely going this time,” he added with a smile, after a second-half goal and two assists from Beth Mead helped Arsenal to sweep aside Brighton with a dominant 3-0 win. “We have kept the foundation and we are benefiting from a lot of the relationships and experiences that this group have already made,” Eidevall said. “My club in Sweden won the Championship last week and I know I’ve been a big part of that, I coached the team for 12 of the games and preseason but still I feel I have nothing to do with it even though I have. “Because you’re not emotionally connected to it in that moment. We need to recognise the contribution people make to the long-term success of clubs and Joe Montemurro needs to get credit for leaving the club in a good place for me to work with.” After her side’s defeat of Manchester City earlier in the day the Chelsea manager, Emma Hayes, had said she would love to meet Arsenal in the final on 5 December, the 100th anniversary of the ban on women’s football. She got her wish, as Mead provided for the captain Kim Little and centre-back Leah Williamson either side of her own effort. “I’d rather have people afraid of playing us than looking forward to it but I know what she means, it’s going to be a great occasion,” Eidevall said of Hayes’s comments. If there was and is a team capable of upsetting the narrative it is Brighton. Last season Hope Powell’s side took points off Manchester United and Chelsea in the Women’s Super League – all but ending the former’s Champions League charge and rupturing the latter’s air of invincibility as they cantered to the league title. With board backing the growth of the Seagulls has been steady. Two ninth-placed finishes were followed by a surprising jump up to sixth last season. Now they sit fifth with five games played and look capable of climbing higher. Powell, a two-time FA Cup winner herself as a player, teased that the pressure would be on their opponents for the win. Predictably though it was Brighton that were immediately under pressure, in footballing terms, at a cripplingly cold Borehamwood. But by the close of the first half Arsenal were frustrated. Despite Arsenal having 64% possession, nine shots to Brighton’s two and six corners to none, the game was goalless, with the Brighton goalkeeper, Megan Walsh, excellent. Arsenal were without the star forward Vivianne Miedema, the US World Cup winner Tobin Heath and the England centre-back Lotte Wubben-Moy but, as opposed to recent seasons, these absences were of the manager’s choosing and not enforced. Leading the line, the Australian forward Caitlin Foord went closest in quick succession shortly before the break. The Gunners returned to the field with the bit between their teeth and fuelled by the frustration of their lack of return on their first-half efforts. An almost angry Mead, who has three goals and three assists in five league games and scored four for England in the international break including a 14-minute hat-trick against Northern Ireland at Wembley, sped in from the left, wrongfooted the excellent Maya Le Tissier and passed to Little who flicked up and in. Just four minutes later and a similar burst on the left saw Mead come in from the left before firing low past the watching Walsh. With 15 minutes remaining a Mead corner was powerfully headed in by Williamson to set up the Wembley showdown with Chelsea.