‘They’ve made it really hard for a lot of teams’ – Arsenal boss Slegers aware of Leicester City’s qualities | OneFootball

Arsenal head coach Renée Slegers admits that she is very aware of the competitiveness of latest opponents Leicester City.

The Gunners travel to The King Power Stadium to face The Foxes in their latest Barclays Women’s Super League fixture on Sunday.

Leicester City have taken five points from their first six league games this season. While The Foxes have struggled for goals, they have defended resolutely throughout. When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Arsenal boss Slegers highlighted the difficulties that Leicester City have caused for opposing sides so far this season.

“The WSL is a very strong league and if you look at Leicester’s results, there are many one-goal differences in the results, so it’s going to be a challenge,” Slegers said. “They have a strong identity with their defending game and the way they do that.

“We have to break things down and find the right moments to capitalise on when things are organised and when things are disorganised. We’ll go there with respect, of course, because they’ve made it really hard for a lot of teams so far. We also go there with a big belief in the qualities that we have.”

After taking 11 points from an available 18 in the first block of matches, Arsenal have work to do. Slegers wants her side to look to the future as they aim to build a strong run of form.

She said “We know what we’re capable of and I think looking back at block one, the results were very, very mixed and not what we wanted. Performances are the same, so we want to look forward. We want to get the absolute best out of ourselves and football will never be perfect but show bigger spells and really show our strength on the pitch as a team but also, in our game of football. Aggression out of possession, get real effect out of those moments and being really, really good on the ball because we have a really good technical and intelligent team.”

Arsenal face five big games between now and the end of November and Slegers says that her players are full of energy and excitement going into the next block.

She said “Five games in three weeks and very challenging and exciting games. We look forward to the challenges. I’m excited, of course, we are part of Arsenal and that’s part of being at Arsenal, that you play these games and you have pressure on you but we shouldn’t forget to enjoy those moments. We’re going to try to do the absolute best to maximise our potential and we believe in ourselves. It’s really, really hard work but putting things into perspective, this was the first day back with all the players.

“We, of course, previewed the block, framed the block, [discussed] what we want to achieve and how we want to do things. There’s a real positivity and the players came back with real energy and real intent. That’s what we want to achieve in the block. It’s very cliché but we’re going to take it game-by-game, so a combination of being in the moment, playing that next game, it’s the most important game you’ll ever play, so that will be Leicester on Sunday.”

Arsenal’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Leicester City kicks-off at 12pm on Sunday afternoon.