‘Success creates momentum’ – Slegers reacts to Arsenal’s victory over Brighton | OneFootball

Arsenal’s interim head coach Renée Slegers said that her side’s emphatic 5-0 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion helped relieve pressure and build momentum ahead of the club’s return to European football in midweek.

The Gunners took on The Seagulls at the Emirates Stadium on Friday evening. Arsenal took an early lead through Beth Mead before goals from Caitlin Foord and Frida Maanum quickly followed. Second half substitute Lina Hurtig added her name to the scoresheet before Alessia Russo completed the scoring from the penalty spot in stoppage time.

When speaking to the media after the match, Arsenal’s interim boss Slegers said that the result relieves some pressure and continues the momentum heading into Tuesday’s UEFA Women’s Champions League fixture against Juventus.

“I think [it does relieve pressure], it looks like that on the outside,” Slegers said. “We know for a long time that we have been doing things really well. We’ve been out-performing our opposition the whole season, apart from Bayern Munich.

“We know that things have been good before, things start to click, we get on the end of it and start scoring goals. That is just a little focus we have had over the last couple of days, but there is so much more to football and we have foundations that have been built over a much longer period of time. Success creates momentum, so it is very good for us.

“How the game plays out, the first half is more controlled from our side and in the second half, we have a couple of turnovers and the space gets bigger. That is what we think we are going to face against Juventus as well; bigger spaces, transitional, player-for-player press. In some sense, we said there were good lessons to be learned today because things might look similar on Tuesday.”

Commenting on Hurtig’s impact as a second half substitute, Slegers highlighted her physical presence, ability to hold up play and danger from set-pieces whilst also expressing satisfaction with her current form and contribution to the team.

She said “She is in a good place, I am really happy for her. What she brought to the game today, you can see she is a physical player. We got her to pressure Brighton when they were jumping a bit more and that is when we want to bypass the midfield and protect the ball in higher positions, that is where Lina comes in.

“She is really good, she’s a good combination and one v one player. For set-pieces both defensively and attacking, she is very dangerous. There are many strengths to Lina and I am very happy that she is doing so well.”

Slegers went on to highlight the importance of having five different attacking players on the scoresheet in the victory.

She said “Credit to them because they have been working really hard and taking things on board. Essentially, what we focused on the last two days was how we attack and defend the boxes. It has been a big theme in the last couple of days and I am really happy we saw that in the game.

“It is not always going to be that easy, you train for two days and all of a sudden, it happens. It is part of a process over a longer time. Obviously, you want to get the rewards when you keep on doing that, so I am happy for the girls.”

Arsenal are back in action on Tuesday evening when they travel to Italy to face Juventus in a UEFA Women’s Champions League group stage fixture.