Arsenal head coach Renée Slegers says her side wants to be consistently consistent, and they know they need to bring their best on Saturday.
Earlier this week, Arsenal were crowned Women’s Club of the Year at the 2025 Ballon d’Or — a moment of pride for the club and its supporters.
“A lot of nominations, which the club is very proud of, and we’re of course very proud of the Club of the Year award. That’s an investment that the club has done over 38 years, since 1987, and that’s why the club is here right now,” praised Slegers.
“A lot of people have been involved in that process for a long time and built legacy for the club. It’s not only what we’ve been doing now, but all the work that people have done before us as well.”
Last Sunday, the Gunners came away with a point after a goalless draw against Manchester United at Leigh Sports Village. Slegers reflected, “If you see the stats of the game and also the subjective analysis of the game, I think it was probably fair. But that’s not what we wanted and what we went for.
“We wanted to go for more, but unfortunately we didn’t find the solutions and bring our best game, especially in the final third of the game. On the other side, I think we were very good defensively and solid and we kept a clean sheet.”
‘No news’ on Leah Williamson’s return says Slegers
Leah Williamson is still out with a knee injury and no timescale has been given on her return yet. However, Slegers said, “Let me update you next time we see each other. There was an appointment today, so we’ll know more after today, then seeing a specialist. Otherwise, no news.”
Jenna Nighswonger is one Arsenal player who has not played any minutes yet this Women’s Super League season.
“No, it’s of course very hard,” Slegers admitted when asked if there were issues regarding recruitment. “Like I’ve been saying, we recruited Jenna and she’s part of us. She’s part of the team. That’s a burden I have to carry.
“When the whole squad is fit, we have so many options. I will only be able to start 11 players and I will only be able to change a maximum of five players. That’s the rules within the game that I have to work with, even though it hurts me as well. That’s the rules of the game and at the end of the day it’s my job, so I’ll have to carry that. I’m not saying that I don’t find that hard, but that’s part of it.”
Aston Villa ‘will ask a lot’ of Arsenal admits Slegers
Arsenal were on the wrong end of a 5-2 defeat the last time they played the Villans — a result that Slegers’ side are eager to put right.
“We knew that going into this season, we want to be consistently consistent and we want to find ways,” stated the head coach. “We need to bring that in every single game, so that’s no different. But we know that we’ll have to bring that on Saturday. We respect Aston Villa. Of course, we played a hard game away last year against Villa, so we know that we need to be at our best on Saturday.”
Slegers urged, “It’s on us to find the solutions, but that’s what we always need to keep in the back of our heads. We need to be versatile, flexible. We need to be able to change things because we can expect teams to change things against us.”
Aston Villa lost to Tottenham Hotspur on penalties on Wednesday evening in the Subway League Cup. Despite this, “They have a strong belief in how they play,” said Slegers. “If they will do what we expect them to do, they will be very aggressive against us so we will have to find a way to find the solutions.
“It will be a tough task, it will ask a lot from us, from a present perspective — are we technically present, are we psychologically present in the game? Because we expect to be under pressure, and we expect to have to find solutions on Saturday. [Their players] are front-footed, they have a lot of physical qualities with speeds up top for example, and they look very disciplined as a team.”
The Gunners will host Aston Villa at 12:00 BST [13:00 CET] at Emirates Stadium. The game will be broadcast on Sky Sports.
