Renee Slegers on ‘very special’ debut for Olivia Smith after Arsenal start WSL season with win | OneFootball

Arsenal Women’s head coach Renee Slegers praised the debut of Olivia Smith after she scored a stunning goal to set the Gunners on their way to a 4-1 win over London City Lionesses.

The north Londoners has fallen behind early on after Kosovare Asllani had put the WSL debutants in front from the penalty spot, but Arsenal fought back in double quick time, with two goals before the break, with Smith firing from 25 yards into the top corner to bring the hosts level.

The Canadian international looked lively throughout the match before her second half substitution, and Slegers was pleased with what she saw from her £1m star.

“It’s very special,” Slegers said. “It was a fantastic individual action, and a lot of players have really good individual actions on the pitch today, which you maybe don’t remember as much because it’s not leading to a goal.

“But there’s so many good things that the players are doing, problem solving and positioning, doing things proactively, but, of course, people come to the stands to watch goals and watch good goals.

“But hopefully everyone appreciates all the other things that part of football as well. So the defending and all the throw ins and free kicks and all the other bits as well.

“But of course, we were very happy to have Olivia with us and I’m also happy that she got this start of her official Arsenal season.”

Slegers was also pleased with how her side battled their way through a much changed Lionesses side, who had welcomed 16 new players through the door prior to their WSL opener.

“They did what we expected, and I think we just lacked a little bit of connection on the pitch and that’s what we accept as well, because it’s the first game back, the first competitive game back.

“But I think what I’m really happy with is how we connected quickly and found the rhythm in the game and found solutions as well. In finding the solution, it wasn’t much because we had planned certain things, it was just adjusting a couple of details.

“And again, I’m really happy with how we did that and how the players on the pitch did that, because I think what it can easily happen is you get a goal against you and you start to do different things and you start to get the emotional, but we didn’t do that, so we found solutions.”