By Chloe Reynolds 6/2/26)
Above: Viviane Miedema on her return to the Emirates last season Photo: Manchester City FC
Renee Slegers says success like their Champions Cup victory last weekend is what fuels Arsenal to keep pushing, as they host WSL leaders Manchester City at the Emirates, aiming to hold on to their slim title chances.
Last weekend Slegers and Arsenal won the Champions cup, a new tournament which sees champions around the world compete to be the ‘best of the best’, and Slegers explained what it meant to win the first ever trophy in this tournament “we love winning. We love winning trophies and this was a special one. We made history, the first team in history to do it and it’s not easy to make history because so much history has been made already in the club. We’re very proud, and it fuels us.
As well as Anneke Borbe, Taylor Hinds will also be absent from this fixture, but Leah Williamson could be set to make her return.
“the swelling had to go down, so she had an ankle injury, swelling has gone down really well and so we’ll have to see how she keeps on progressing, but in the first couple of days, the first week it’s gone really well.”
“But I can’t give you a prognosis yet. And so she’s close (Leah) and she was available for shorts bulk of minutes. We chose to not do it. We had other players ready as well. And of course, with another week of training, she’s ready for more minutes so she’ll be available soon.”
The 37 year old also spoke on the fans and how vital they are going to be during the big game “It was amazing because I think we had to be resilient. We had to deal with the circumstances, with the different phases of the game, the late equaliser and then going into extra time. But the fans had to be resilient as well and they were with us. They were just as mentally strong as the players on the pitch and I think they fuelled the players. I’m so happy that we won the game and could give them the goal and the win and then celebrate in the rain afterwards where everyone was staying and we had that special moment with the fans again. It’s so special and it’s so important for us, so let’s bring all that energy again on Sunday together.”
Sundays fixture will also see Arsenal continuing the ‘Defend Your Tomorrow’ campaign that helps protect against cervical cancer and Slegers explained how important this campaign is “I think we can make an impact from who we are and who we can reach out to in society, so we want to stand for this and we support the campaign it affects a lot of people Its affected players and staff as well. So we know what it means and we want to do everything to support a campaign.”
Vivianne Miedema is a player that Slegers knows well, and this is what the Dutch coach had to say “I think she’s always been, when I played with her, she was a false nine, she would always play in the 9, I actually played behind her in the 10. She’s such an intelligent player, the way she sees things and spaces.”
“It was a pleasure for me to play with her, I learned a lot from her. Even though she was younger than me when we played together in the national team, I think that says something about Viv. I think she does really well in the 10 role, I think she picks up spaces really well, she has so much quality on the ball to be able to set other players up so I think she’s performing really well for City.”
Slegers also confirmed when the Australian Trio of Caitlin Foord, Steph Catley and Kyra Cooney- Cross will be leaving for the Asian Cup “we have our last game of the block against Bristol and after that they will travel”
Arsenal host Manchester city in a thrilling clash at the Emirates Stadium. Kick off is at 12:00 on Sunday 8th February.
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