‘When it has to happen, they do it’ – Slegers on Arsenal’s WSL win over Chelsea | OneFootball

Renee Slegers praised her team’s impressive performance as Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-0 at Stamford Bridge in the Women’s Super League.

The Gunners have struggled at times in front of goal this season, but clinical goals from Beth Mead and Mariona Caldentey saw them beat the WSL champions away from home for the first time in the league since 2018.

Arsenal remain third in the league but the win moves them just one point behind the champions, with Slegers saying the win will give the team “so much” morale.

“That’s what I love about the performance,” the Arsenal boss said. “How we were willing to suffer from start to finish.

“Chelsea and us are two teams that like to come out fast in games.I think we came out really strong today and then it was about controlling the tempo and managing the game.

“I think one of our strengths today was going into the game with a lot of clarity and they kept that going during the game as well.

“When the moment is there for this team, when it really, really, really has to happen, they do it every single time. So there’s a lot of strength in this team in those moments.” 

Arsenal were knocked out of the League Cup midweek against Manchester United, but remain involved in the Champions League, FA Cup and this win keeps them in the title race, which Manchester City are currently leading.

With the Gunners now seven points behind the league leaders, Slegers believes this result will give them the lift they need for the latter part of the season.

“The way the team responded after the United game and how constructive they were and how invested they were in everything, that gave me so much confidence going into this game. 

“This is my third game against Chelsea. I made a commitment to myself on how I want to go into these types of games.

“All those things together made me go into this game with a lot of respect, of course, and humility but also with a lot of belief in what we could achieve today.

“I think they had very clear minds, which had them make good decisions and had them stay in the moment, focused on the task and they did that so well.”

“In our previous games, we did a lot of good things but just in the final third, we couldn’t score. We have been working on that and we brought that today to ourselves.

“We’ve proven to ourselves how composed we can be, how we can set up really good chances, which wins us the game. It’s so well-deserved to the players because they’ve been so invested, they’ve been so composed the last couple of days. Very constructive, solution-based, full of belief.

“I’m also very happy for the fans because the fans want good performances and results and I’m so happy that we could give that to them today.”