‘They’re very stable’ – Arsenal boss Slegers impressed by newcomers London City | OneFootball

Arsenal head coach Renée Slegers says that she has been impressed by latest opponents London City Lionesses in their first season in the Barclays Women’s Super League.

The Gunners take on The Pride at The Copperjax Community Stadium in Bromley on Sunday afternoon.

When commenting on London City Lionesses in the pre-match press conference, Arsenal boss Slegers highlighted the stability that the club have enjoyed in their first top flight campaign.

“At the moment, they’re very stable in the table,” Slegers said. “It’s hard if you come up from WSL2 to stabilise and do the right things to be able to do that but I think they’ve done that.

“Of course, they recruited a lot of experienced players, that’s been their strategy, as it looks like from the outside; to build something stable in the first season in the WSL. I think they’ve done that well. They have quality players and, like I said, a stable position in the table.”

Arsenal defeated London City Lionesses 4-1 in the reverse fixture. Slegers is prepared for a different approach from The Pride this time around with the club now operating under new management.

She said “I think they’ve changed since the change in management. If you look at the game we played against them at the Emirates first game of the season, we don’t expect the game to be playing out like that on Sunday because they’ve changed tactically. It might do but a little bit more positional and maybe zonal in their defence rather than going player-for-player, that will be different.

“Of course, if you look at the players that are playing for them and how they play them to their strengths, you see that they’ve been really good with fast attacks and doing things on the dribble and counter-attacks. They’ve had tight results against top teams. That’s the way they’ve played those types of games. I think set-pieces is an area for the game as well.”

London City Lionesses have achieved a first home sell-out in the Barclays Women’s Super League and Slegers was quick to highlight the Arsenal support that will be present on Sunday.

She said “Well done, of course. You can see they’re proud of their sell-out. I think there’s 5,000 tickets sold but I also think there’s 1,500 Arsenal fans. One-third of the crowd, almost, will be Arsenal. We’re, of course, really proud and privileged with the fanbase that we have. We will hear them and they will feed us. We will do everything to deliver what they want to see. They want to see an Arsenal team together performing well and winning matches, so we’re going to do everything we can on Sunday.”

Arsenal’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at London City Lionesses kicks-off at 11.55am on Sunday.