Renee Slegers has chosen to silence the noise around Emirates Stadium despite dropping four points from her opening four WSL games ahead of the crucial clash with Manchester City; watch Manchester City vs Arsenal on Sky Sports Premier League from 11am on Saturday, kick-off 12pm.
two games without a win ahead of title decider at Manchester City />
Ron Walker
If a week is a long time in football, then two weeks is an eternity, as evidenced by the stark contrast in the mood currently prevailing around the Emirates.
After crushing wins over London City Lionesses and West Ham in their first two matches, scoring nine goals, and picking up one goal and two points in their next two matches against Manchester United and a home game against winless Aston Villa, there have already been external questions – fair or not – about Arsenal's title claims.
- Current WSL Standings | All the WSL highlights this season
- Got Sky? Watch the Manchester City vs. Arsenal match on the Sky Sports app.
- Don't have a Sky subscription? Subscribe to Sky Sports or watch contract-free on NOW.
It seems like a bizarre start to the season. But in a league where perennial champions Chelsea can go an entire campaign unbeaten, there's a certain sense of déjà vu in north London after six seasons without a WSL title.
Datawrapper. This content is provided by Datawrapper, which may use cookies and other technologies. To show you this content, we need your consent to use cookies. You can use the buttons below to change your settings and enable Datawrapper cookies or allow them only once. You can change your settings at any time in the Privacy Settings section. Unfortunately, we were unable to verify your consent to Datawrapper's use of cookies. To view this content, you can use the button below to allow Datawrapper cookies for this session only. Enable cookies Allow cookies once
Arsenal are used to making mistakes in games they should win. Two years ago, they finished five points behind the leaders, but of the six games in which they dropped points, five were against teams finishing higher. The difference is so small.
This may raise hopes that Saturday's match against Manchester City, which will be broadcast on Sky Sports, a team who have beaten them only once in their last eight league matches, will allay fears that this could be another season of “what if.” However, on the flip side, they could end the weekend seven points behind Chelsea—more than the Blues dropped in all of last season.
“We don't talk about such things,” insists head coach Renée Slegers in an interview with Sky Sports. She'd say the same thing if Arsenal were four points ahead: control the controllable, as they say. Develop consistency.
But even so, she, like any other player, understands that she needs to improve the situation after two contrasting performances with the same result – no goals.
Against a resilient Manchester United that was understandable, but there was an undeniable sense that someone had missed something against Villa, recording an xG of 2.69 but failing to add to Frida Maanum's 10th-minute strike – and that was due to a defensive error.
Slegers warned immediately after the game against over-analysing the result and remains wary of placing too much emphasis on external concerns, but there has been a strong focus on finding a clinical approach in training at London Colney this week.
“It's more about what we do with the timing and obviously the weekend game is a big test of what you've been working on, but that's what we need to focus on right now,” she says.
“I'm not saying we don't believe in our strengths. Over time, we've shown we can score goals, but things have to turn out differently.
Twitter. This content is provided by Twitter, which may use cookies and other technologies. To show you this content, we need your consent to use cookies. You can use the buttons below to change your settings and enable Twitter cookies or allow them only once. You can change your settings at any time in your privacy settings. Unfortunately, we were unable to verify whether you consented to Twitter's use of cookies. To view this content, you can use the button below to allow Twitter cookies for this session only. Enable cookies Allow cookies once
“Scoring goals is the hardest thing in football, it's the biggest pressure, but in those moments we, as a team and individually, showed tremendous strength.”
Slegers is always inclined to ignore the hype surrounding one of the biggest clubs in women's football, but even she is willing to accept some criticism of her methods.
Mariona Caldentey played all but 11 minutes of Arsenal's first four matches and remained on the pitch for the full 90 minutes against Villa as Arsenal's lead eroded until Lucy Parker's 94th-minute equaliser.
After the game, Sky Sports pundit Ian Wright suggested the Spanish midfielder lacked energy and sharpness and suggested she should have been replaced by Australian Kyra Cooney-Cross, who has yet to play a minute this season, but Slegers defended her choice, maintaining faith in the Ballon d'Or finalist.
“It may look a certain way, but whenever that happens, there's a lot more put into it,” she said. “But no, the players aren't tired or anything.”
“The season has just started, there is a seven-day break between games, but of course we want to see great play on the field.
“When they don't look so good, there could be different reasons for that, but no, I think they have to be physically fine, otherwise they wouldn't be on the field.”
Last Saturday marked the first match since Caldentey, who lost to Barcelona's Aitana Bonmati to win world football's top prize. That same evening, Arsenal was also named Club of the Year after their Champions League victory over the Catalan giants in May.
Pictured: Renee Slegers spoke at the Ballon d'Or ceremony in Paris last week after Arsenal were named Women's Club of the Year.
It was an unusual moment: Slegers, rarely in the spotlight, took the stage to accept the award and delivered a speech, ending with a plea to those gathered to “invest in women, invest in women's sports. When we do that, everyone wins.”
It was a powerful message from a usually reserved leader, but its impact was undoubtedly amplified by the size of the audience. Is that why she chose this particular moment?
“I didn't know how I'd feel about it beforehand!” she says. “But it actually went pretty well. I represented Arsenal, and as a club, we were really happy we were able to get that message across.”
“There were two more truly powerful speeches, most notably from Sarina Wiegman and Hannah Hampton. I'm increasingly convinced that when a platform is created to convey your message to the world…
“I never like to take advantage of these moments, but if you find yourself in such a situation, I believe you should take advantage of them. You can really make an impact on society and sports.”
Watch Manchester City v Arsenal on Saturday from 11:00 on Sky Sports Premier League, kick-off at 12:00.
Sourse: skysports.com
