ARSENAL women's boss Jonas Eidevall believes "clubs like Southampton" are why there is a case for more teams to be a part of the Women's Super League.

A 92nd minute winner from substitute Amanda Ilestedt was the difference in a 2-1 Arsenal win over Southampton FC women last night, but they were pushed all the way by the Championship side.

Molly Pike gave Saints a second half lead when her stunning strike beat Sabrina D'Angelo in the Gunners goal, which had the majority of the club record 13,438 crowd on its feet.

The Gunners, though, reacted straight away and were level again within four minutes when Frida Maanum fired in before they upped the ante.

The Swedish boss revealed post-match that there is not much difference between the sides at the top of the Championship and lower down in the WSL.

He told the Daily Echo: "I think I had a good picture of Southampton, they are one of the best teams in the Championship and I think there is not much difference between the top of the Championship and the bottom of the WSL, which is very competitive.

"I was talking to Marieanne Spacey-Cale before and I said when you see clubs like Southampton there is a real case to say the WSL can be bigger than 12 teams, there is a really strong argument for that.

"They have four players in the England under-23 squad, maybe that is more than anyone else? 

"I was a big advocate of (an expanded league) in Sweden when we went from 12 to 16 teams so we could get more of those younger talents coming through.

"Southampton are a competitive side and it was a great event they put on tonight and it was great for women’s football."

Eidevall was impressed by the club record crowd and he also paid tribute to Marieanne Spacey-Cale's side as they look to climb to the top of the women's game.

He said: "The atmosphere today was great, this would have been one of the top attendances in the Champions League this week, that’s great and shows the growth of the women’s game in England.

"Southampton have a really good process and they are building well and it’s obvious when you see them play, it’s going to be very interesting to follow them because they are very competitive."