Renee Slegers reacts to 5-1 victory over West Ham United

Arsenal were 5-1 winners at West Ham in the WSL on Friday night, despite falling behind to an early van Domselaar own goal, Frida Maanum equalised before second half goals from Stina Blackstenius, Caitlin Foord and an Alessia Russo double sealed the win. Renee Slegers spoke to the press post-match, the first two questions are from Arseblog News.

On Blackstenius’ impact in this fixture from the bench in consecutive seasons…
Of course, we analysed the last three games we played against West Ham, so we were aware of that and we started a certain way today. They came out differently from what they’ve played this season so far in preseason, so they come out in the back five. I think we do well coming back in the first half after that cross that flies into the goal. But what we saw clearly during the first half, there was a lot of space in behind. They were aggressive stepping forwards. There were 1V1 moments for the nine and of course, that’s one of Stina’s big qualities.

On her, Aaron D’Antino and Mel Clarke-Reid staying in the dugout for a while at half-time…
We always do this, but there was no room inside, there was no private space, so we felt like that was the most private we could get here today. So we stayed outside, so this is always our routine. We connect and have a list of what we go through and we always have a look at some key moments, key clips, and we present it back to the players.

On mistakes leading to concession of early goals this season…
It’s not the scenario you want, especially not your first opening game at the Emirates with so many fans and everyone very excited. But also not when you go away and play West Ham, because we respect this ground and this opponent and we know they can make it really hard for us and that’s what they did today. Intensity was really high in the game, so it was hard. But I think in the end, we have a lot of late goals today again with the game changers coming on, opposition getting a little bit tired and then we have so much quality that come onto the pitch and we capitalise. So that’s what we did today.

The impact of having a lot of attacking depth…
That’s the puzzle for me and I spend a lot of time there in the week and to make good decisions and think through everything. So it’s a big part of my role at the moment with this super squad that I have to work on right now. Players always want to play. We have a squad of 24, and there’s only 11 that can start and you can only make five changes. So if we often make a lot of changes, but that still means there’s only six players that play 90 minutes. And they should want to play, that’s what they should strive for and that should be their drive to play as many minutes as possible. But what we also want to create is look around and what impact a starter can have and finishers can have and how we do things together and how many games are going to have this season. So we try to make everyone as aware as possible, but then still every individual needs to keep that drive.

On Russo’s qualities as a 10…
It’s probably the areas in the box where you get your finishes from. She is really good from those positions where the ball often gets to, so that’s why we’ve been working with Less every now and then in that position and also because we have to really good nines and sometimes we need a Russo player type and a nine, and sometimes we need the Blackstenius player type in the nine, and then we know that Less can do the 10 as well. So I’m really happy in that position, and not only the two goals, the penalty and the shot from distance, but all the other work she’s done in the 10.

On taking Maanum off at half-time…
Very short conversation in the changing rooms. She performed really, really well. This a technical decision. So that was the quick communication we had.

On starting the season with two big wins…
This is how you want to start the season, so I’m really pleased with that, there’s a lot of good things, but also we can’t relax, we can’t get complacent. That’s why we get this result today, because we are so on top of everything, because we knew we had to, because we know that last season, yes, we had a fantastic high performance against Barcelona and the whole Champions League journey, but we also saw those moments in the season where we didn’t and that’s why these type of games are so important for us right now, so that’s why I’m really happy that we get the result.

14.van Domselaar; 2.Fox, 26.Reid, 7.Catley (3.Wubben-Moy ‘88), 11.McCabe (24.Hinds ‘79); 10.Little(c), 8.Mariona (21.Pelova ‘78); 9.Mead (15.Smith ‘62), 12.L.Maanum (25.Blackstenius HT), 19.Foord; 23.Russo

Unused: 1.Zinsberger, 5.L.Codina, 28.Borbe, 32.Cooney-Cross

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