The Halfway Line heard from Arsenal midfielder Lia Wälti ahead of this weekend’s Barclays Women’s Super League (WSL) fixture against Tottenham Hotspur.
Looking ahead to Saturday afternoon’s clash, the Swiss national team captain discussed playing under Renée Slegers, her own leadership role at the club, and Tuesday’s victory over Juventus in the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
Arsenal must be ‘efficient’
Characteristically, Wälti was one of Arsenal’s strongest assets in Italy earlier this week. She did not shy away from the challenges the fixture brought, though, highlighting “We don’t usually play against teams who mark over the whole pitch in a one against one.”
The Gunners won the group stage clash a colossal 4-0, and Wälti spoke on how the squad are pushing for progress behind closed doors, confirming “In the last couple of weeks, I think we were working on that a lot, to be efficient in the final third, both attacking wise, but also defensively.”
Last year’s Spurs defeat ‘hurt us a lot’ says Wälti
Anticipating tomorrow’s North London face-off, Wälti spoke about the passion behind Arsenal’s approach to the important game.
“Leah [Williamson] said today in training to all of us, there is nothing bigger than the North London Derby, and I think that’s the mentality we have to bring on the pitch tomorrow.”
Drawing on the events of last season, Wälti continued, “We lost against Spurs last year in their stadium, and that hurt us a lot. We don’t want that to happen again. So, we want to use our momentum.”
The midfielder reaffirmed her belief in the team’s good run of form under Slegers heading into this weekend, professing “We’ve had a few good games, a good energy, good confidence, and we want to bring that on the pitch tomorrow and show that North London is red.”
‘A lot of clubs are pushing the game in the right direction’
This weekend, all of the Barclays Women’s Super League and Barclays Women’s Championship games will take place at clubs’ main stadiums.
“It’s great. I always say that I appreciate being in the generation where we’ve kind of experienced both, because we used to play in front of just a hundred people,” Wälti said of the milestone.
Wälti continued to highlight the progress the women’s game is currently seeing, expanding “Now we’re getting the chances to actually play in the big, big stadiums, in front of a lot of people. And that’s something we always dreamed about. I think you can see it in England. They’re pushing the game. A lot of clubs are pushing the game in the right direction, giving the female players the same chances as the male players.”
Arsenal ‘have the momentum on our side’
Wälti has been with the Gunners since 2018, and takes on a clear role in the club’s leadership team both on and off the pitch.
Speaking on this, the experienced midfielder said “I’m naturally a person who likes to take responsibility, to kind of lead by example, help young players and help making decisions.”
Wälti then praised interim head coach Slegers’ managerial style, describing “She’s really calm. She gives trust. I think she stays absolutely true to herself. You can’t really see big change in her behaviour compared to when she was in the assistant coach role. So I think what we can feel is full, full trust, clarity.”
Looking ahead to the Tottenham clash, Wälti asserted “She [Slegers] knows her game plan. She’s trying to invest a lot of time and tactical information. I think sometimes it’s just like, I think at the start of the season, we did perform well in a lot of games, we just didn’t turn out to have the best results.”
“Now, we have the momentum on our side.”
