Arsenal are a staff reworked beneath Renee Slegers. No aspect has received extra factors (21) within the Girls’s Tremendous League in 2025. The speed they’re scoring previous opponents (3.6 per sport), and the design of these targets, is fairly outstanding too.
This from a squad that seemed fully devoid of confidence initially of the season. Missing creativeness and creativity, weighed down by the stress of expectancy fairly than buoyed by it.
Below the Dutchwoman Arsenal have received 37 factors from 14 WSL video games, two shy of leaders Chelsea’s complete over the identical interval. The Gunners are at present six factors behind Sonia Bompastor’s aspect within the operating for the title, albeit the hole might be halved in the event that they beat Leicester on Tuesday night time, dwell on Sky Sports activities.
It is onerous to recall a supervisor having such fast influence. In fact Slegers’ promotion to move coach has benefitted from some continuity having labored inside former boss Jonas Eidevall’s technical staff since September 2023, however her footprint as Arsenal’s chief is not any much less spectacular.
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Slegers freely admits, sitting in a relaxed stance in her workplace at Arsenal’s coaching floor, the transition from interim head to everlasting took longer than anticipated – upturn in outcomes, nonetheless, has come as little shock.
“It is onerous to say what I anticipated. What we needed in my interim interval was to get the staff going once more, stabilising with consistency. We did that. The interim interval was longer than probably what I anticipated however we have put ourselves in a very good place if we have a look at the place we got here from. I am actually completely satisfied.
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Highlights from the Girls’s Tremendous League match between Crystal Palace and Arsenal
“We did so much initially about our tradition and behaviours. That really went faster than I anticipated. We have been organically creating our sport on account of that.”
Present type is bordering excellent. That is the Gunners’ finest run of league wins since seven successive triumphs between October-December 2023. Stretching additional again, they’ve received 10 of their final 11, solely dropping factors to Chelsea.
Arsenal threatened to drop out of the WSL’s institution within the early components of this marketing campaign however the comeback story has compelled followers to re-engage. That is how eras develop into memorable. A staff in disaster that moulds right into a staff in rivalry might be one thing particular. Slegers is definitely having fun with her crest-of-a-wave second.
“The most important win has been the best way the squad takes possession,” she says. “They’ve been so decided to convey one thing extra. Their mindset was so good these first couple of months they usually have been so desirous to work collectively to make issues higher. I am so happy it went in that course.”
And nothing about this second of Arsenal excellence has been by probability. Generally the staff has needed to scrap, come from behind, cling onto a slender lead, play much less fairly than Slegers’ regular model dictates, however these elements have constructed perception. Antagonistic Arsenal is one thing genuinely fairly novel.
“First we constructed perception upon proof. We have discovered the proper mixture of perception by proving we will do issues, and belief that we all know we will obtain one thing extra. We use these particular moments – preventing again towards West Ham, come from behind towards Liverpool, beating Actual Madrid – as examples and carry on reinforcing them.”
Actually this was the one manner. Slegers knew she needed to break the cycle of disgruntlement inherited from the Eidevall period and begin afresh. No sideshows, simply enterprise.
Arsenal have scored 45 targets in Renee Slegers’ 14 WSL video games, most of any staff since her appointment
“I see the world and soccer by way of my eyes. I’m a special particular person to Jonas [Eidevall]. I come from one thing else, I apply myself otherwise and it is all the time going to be like that. Naturally issues will change if the group and the soccer is seen by way of another person’s eyes.
“What I’ve discovered is it is good for me to be calm, we join properly like this, throughout the staff and workers. It has been a hit issue that I actually wish to hold going. If I current myself in a peaceful manner I can organise my ideas, and we might be sharp and efficient as a tag staff on the touchline.”
Arsenal’s ‘large membership’ persona has returned. Slegers’ win ratio of 85.7 per cent is the very best of any Gunners head coach to have taken cost of 10 plus video games. Forty-five WSL targets scored, probably the most of any staff since her appointment, is only one instance of such optimistic noise.
It is even beginning to punctuate Bompastor’s bubble. The award for the league’s ‘finest newcomer’ is truly going to be up for deliberation. Who’d have thought it? There is not any larger praise given how relentlessly Chelsea have carried out.
In the end, the spoils of this marketing campaign could also be few by way of tangible silverware for Slegers. However progress and an evolution of concord is evident for all to see. “The followers convey the opposite issues, the feelings and vitality, however I wish to be a peaceful presence. Within the stress moments that is what gamers want,” she emphasises.
Some triumphs, for now, would possibly really feel extra important than trophies. The enjoyment of the soccer, the realignment with followers, the fun of a Champions League semi-final towards Lyon on the finish of the week amongst them. Something extra can be an surprising bonus.
Nonetheless, not dangerous for a WSL first-timer.
Watch Arsenal vs Leicester Metropolis dwell on Sky Sports activities Soccer on Tuesday from 7pm; kick-off 7.30pm
