Arsenal were 5-2 winners over Spurs at Emirates Stadium in the WSL on Saturday teatime. A first half hat trick from Alessia Russo and second half goals from Caitlin Foord and Stina Blackstenius gave Arsenal the points. Renee Slegers spoke to the press post-match, the first two questions are from Arseblog News.
On trying to expose Spurs with quick balls in behind and into the channels…
Yes because with their aggression and jumping on backwards passes and going player for player that’s something we wanted to exploit. So I think we did that really well in the 1st half.
On Alessia Russo becoming an elite goal scorer…
What we try to create is an environment where players and people can grow and Less is definitely doing that but she takes a lot of ownership. She’s very reflective. She works closest with Kelly Smith so they talk to the detail and and also have a lot of conversations about mindset going into games. But she’s in a great place, Alessia but I think the whole squad is. She’s a fantastic finisher. I think you saw the goal the other night where she takes that touch and then the finish on the ball and then three goals today. She’s one of the best finishers I’ve seen. And there’s so many other things to her game, so she’s such a complete footballer.
On making a fast start today…
Playing ant the Emirates with our fans, starting, fast fuelling energy, we did that really well and of course early goals always help. I think at the moment the whole squad is ready to perform and if you compare to the way we started against Chelsea, we make five changes today and then throughout the game we might we make five changes. Just the squad is in a really good place and then we always look at per game. How do we start the game? How do we want to finish the game? What qualities do we need? And there’s a lot of things going into the decisions. Load management is one of them as well. I’m just really happy with where the team is at.
On strength in depth with two subs scoring today…
It’s super important and either make an impact as a starter or you make an impact as a finisher and that’s what I want to work with is taking that away the importance of starting for us. A game is 90 minutes and with the change of rule that where you can make five changes and if you look at the squad that we have and the different attributes that we can use. For me, it’s all about maximising the use of squad and the different qualities that we have and I think we’re very happy with where the group is at and we’re all going in this direction and we understand that that’s important for us. So I’m just really happy with that.
On the attendance and atmosphere…
We spoke about with the players beforehand to connect with the fans to fuel them with certain actions on the pitch so they could give us the energy back and I think that was what’s happening and what was happening in the game.
On Russo’s contribution to Arsenal’s recent form…
She’s in great form, but I think she’s been really good throughout the season and She can do different things for us and she’s such a complete footballer if you look at her understanding out of possession and the willingness of her to work out of possession. How she enjoys that side of the game, her physical presence, her aerial ability. Everything being good under pressure, holding up the ball, rolling pressure, being good between lines being she’s she’s relatively fast as well attacking space and behind finishing from different angles in different ways. I can keep on talking, but there’s so many good things, but the thing that stands out the most for me is with all these qualities that she has who she is as a person.
On Blackstenius’ goal scoring form…
A lot of credit needs to go to Stina herself, again, because she’s playing a lot of minutes at the moment and I think what what we’ve taken away now, what Stina has taken away is the idea that she has a certain thing you put her in a box that this is Stina with physical ability and speed, but that’s so much more to her game. I’m so happy that I’m very impressed with her because if I look at who she was when she was 16 and who she is now, it’s unbelievable. The steps she’s taken throughout her career. I think all credit needs to go to her how she’s built. She’s been resilient and how she’s been humble, willing to work, willing to take the role and and collaborate again also a lot with with Kelly Smith and the other coaches to become better every day, it’s amazing. I’m really happy for her that she’s performing so well at the moment.
On scoring 13 goals in four games…
We started the season well we had quite some goals in the in the first two WSL games. We know we can do it and I think we’ve been working really hard as a staff group and players to find the solutions and to to see where we can create our chances from how we look, how we see the qualities in the squad, how we how we play to those qualities but also use moments in a game to to score goals. And I think we’re doing that really well at the moment players are doing so well so. Soon it will be possible again because the game changes and opposition changes but so then we’ll have to find new solutions and new ways so it’s constant work but at the moment it’s really good.
On Olivia Smith’s performance…
There’s so many things to Olivia Smith. I think there’s a lot of reasons why we wanted to bring her to Arsenal. And because she can do so many different things. So again, I can talk to all the qualities that she has and how she contributes to how we want to play football. But the work she she does out of possession, her counterpressing ability, her pressing ability. Of course she’s very fast. She’s really good in the one v one but if we would only use her one way, I think it would be predictable so we want to use her in different ways. And she has other sides to her game as well. We are constantly learning constantly looking at where can we herd the position and how can we play Olivia to her strengths in relationship to all the others on the pitch? And I think what she did today was really good and we do it as a team and we create those spaces altogether. She was not injured, we took her off because of the yellow card.
On conceding two goals today…
We were on a great run with clean sheets, so we were never happy when we concede in the WSL. We’ll have a look at it of course we’re gonna reflect on it. The type of balls and how we can prevent these from happening and also linking that to Chelsea. But that’s no different from what we normally would do. We would always reflect and look at our performances.
On Caitlin Foord returning with a goal…
It was really important for us to get her going again because she’s such an important player for us and happy with the goal for her. I think it’s a great cross from Smilla and Foordy reads that well controls it well and then finishes it really well. I’m just really happy for her and I think it goes without saying how resilient Caitlin Foord is. I think you can see it in the way she plays her football. She’s constantly working, constantly going to the next section and so good to have her back and so good have Steph Catley back as well.
On starting Daphne van Domselaar…
Like I mentioned about the rest of the squad as well to have as many players ready as possible, that’s the ideal scenario for us so that was important for Daph as well and she was ready she’s been training consistently and she’s been looking good. We have a squad and we have a goalkeeping situation where we have a lot of quality so I’m just really happy with that.
Subs; 2.Fox, 13.Votikova, 24.Hinds, 28.Borbe