Above: Renée Slegers addresses the media Photo: Arsenal FC
by Rachel Gore (31/1/25)
Arsenal’s manager Renée Slegers spoke on the fitness of Foord and Little, the club’s newest signings, and the “quality” of her squad ahead of Sunday’s match against Manchester City.
Following their recent loss to Chelsea, Arsenal are in fourth place in the WSL table, one point behind Sunday’s opponents Manchester City in third.
Whilst this match, and Arsenal’s next few games, are particularly important due to their position in the table, the squad will “approach the game” in the same ways as always. Slegers said that they are starting “afresh” after last week’s loss but equally that they “know what the table looks like”.
The last time that Arsenal faced City was in September, which ended in a 2-2 draw. Slegers has analysed this fixture but knows that City has “changed a lot of things” and that they too will have “looked back at that last game”, highlighting that “both teams are in a learning process”.
In this September fixture, Vivianne Miedema played for City against her former club. When asked about Miedema, Slegers said: “We play against a lot of quality players in this league and Viv is definitely one of them, she has high quality in everything she does”. She did, however, also state that the Arsenal “girls know her very well and they have a plan to defend against her in the best way”. Slegers’ squad will be extremely focused when they “defend the box” to prevent another Miedema goal.
Slegers also provided clarity on the fitness of Arsenal players Kim Little and Caitlin Foord. Little broke her finger during the recent Crystal Palace fixture and “managed two games” but had to undergo surgery for her long-term health. Slegers said that Foord is “recovering well” and that they will see whether she is fit in time for Sunday.
A key quality of these players, and the other Arsenal players, is their versatility. Slegers was keen to speak about the “quality in the squad” and the fact that many of her players excel in multiple positions. She remarked that she hasn’t “had the privilege of working with these kinds of players before” and further said: “You can have all these beautiful ideas in your head as a coach and anything is possible with the best players in the world”.
Despite the depth of talent in her squad, Slegers had been putting out similar starting line-ups for recent matches. She said that this decision came with the aim of building “consistency because it had been stormy around the team”. This “worked” and even with these measures, “playing minutes were quite well shared amongst players”.
In the last 24 hours, Arsenal have also announced the signings of two new players. Speaking on these signings, Slegers described the “processes in the background” and the “great structure in place”.
The first of these signings was Jenna Nighswonger, an American defender making the transfer from Gotham FC. Nighswonger has the “preferred position” of left back but “she can play in other positions as well”. Slegers mentioned that Arsenal had been looking to “add a player to the squad” who works well in these defensive areas and that this, alongside her age, makes Nighswonger “a great fit”.
The signing of Chloe Kelly, which became official late last night, saw Arsenal steal one of City’s players ahead of Sunday’s game.
Kelly has moved to Arsenal on loan from City and is, therefore, ineligible to play against her parent club on Sunday. Slegers is set to “sit down with Chloe this afternoon” and whilst discussions will “mostly” be about the processes at Arsenal and how they’ll work together, the manager did say that they “might have some conversations” about Sunday’s game.
Slegers is not only excited to welcome Kelly because of the intel she could offer about City’s tactics, but also because Kelly has been at the club before and so “understands what Arsenal is”, knows some of the girls, and has “links to the culture”. She revealed that Kelly had been on Arsenal’s radar for a while.
Slegers gratitude for these new additions to her squad, and the existing players, was evident as she said: “I’m in a luxury position with all these great players”.
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