Renée Slegers says Arsenal have responded well to ‘frustrating’ Women’s Super League (WSL) draw against Crystal Palace.
Arsenal have had some slow starts to recent WSL campaigns, and fans were once again left to be concerned after a goalless draw to newly promoted Crystal Palace at Emirates Stadium last weekend. That was despite 30 shots in the direction of Pauline Peyraud-Magnin’s goal, and while the Crystal Palace goalkeeper had a great day out on the Emirates pitch, the quality of the finishing from the Gunners wasn’t up to their usual standards.
Arsenal head coach Renée Slegers spoke to the media after that game, deeming the lack of goals as ‘frustrating’ to her. Asked how Slegers has addressed the issue in training, she says that the team has responded well ahead of a new challenge against a winless Manchester United side this Saturday.
“Of course, we were happy with our dominance in the game and our entries in the final third, entries in the box, amount of shots”, Slegers explained. “But we’re also been looking at how can we create even bigger opportunities for ourselves when the spaces are really tight and there’s a lot of bodies in the box. So what are moments in the game and how do we create spaces? So we’ve applied some ideas. We reviewed together with the players. We’ve been on the training pitch and the players’ reaction has been really, really good.”
Arsenal squad selection ‘hardest part of my job at the moment’ says Slegers
In the WSL, teams are allowed to name twenty players in their match day squads. Arsenal have signed eight new players this summer, including stars Georgia Stanway and Ona Batlle. However, it is new summer signings Géraldine Reuteler (signed from Eintracht Frankfurt) and Selina Cerci (signed from Hoffenheim) who missed out on the match day squad for the first two games in the WSL. Slegers has called for WSL match day squads to be enlarged. The Halfway Line asked Slegers about her decision making process around match day squads.
“So there’s a lot of different things going into those decisions”, Slegers sets out. “One of them is just purely physical readiness. It’s readiness from a game model perspective. It’s different scenarios that we go through ahead of the game, how we think we want to start the game, how we see the game play out, what do we need in different scenarios, how do we want to finish? So there’s a lot of things playing into it. What player qualities do we think we need?
“And there’s such fine margins at the moment because, like I just said, we have a great squad with everyone performing at a high level. So those decisions are really, really difficult. And hindsight is always a beautiful thing. We try to make high quality decisions based off as much information as we can, both objectively, subjectively, so. But it is difficult. It’s really hard. It’s the hardest part of my job at the moment.”
Unbeaten run ‘nice to see in the background’
Arsenal have equalled their longest unbeaten run in the WSL with their draw with Crystal Palace last week. They have gone nineteen games without a defeat now. The previously longest run dated from 2011. Chelsea has the longest unbeaten run in the WSL with 34 games in a row undefeated in 2024 and 2025. Slegers says that statistics like these are not talked about in training,
“I wasn’t aware of it”, Slegers admits. “I don’t think the squad is aware of it. So for us what’s most important is the next game against United and we want to win that game. That’s what we’re focusing on. So it’s nice to see in the background, but for us it has no meaning in the moment.”
Daphne van Domselaar’s return plan ‘has changed several times now’
Daphne van Domselaar has been out with an unknown injury since the end of last season. She has had surgery on the issue, and is yet to return. Slegers says that the plan for her return has been unpredictable.
“At the moment it’s hard to tell [when she is back]”, Slegers revealed. “So October is on our minds somewhere, but we still have to look at how the new response and day by day there is a plan in place, but that plan has been changed several times now. So, yeah, October would be great, but let’s see where it goes.”
Meanwhile, Katie Reid, and Michelle Agyemang are still out with their respective ACL injuries. Élisa de Almeida, this summer’s signing from PSG, has joined the three players in the rehab room this week. She will not feature against Manchester United this weekend.
Arsenal host Manchester United at Emirates Stadium this Saturday at 5:30PM BST. The match will be shown live on SkySports.
