Nearly two months on from Jonas Eidevall’s departure, Arsenal are still no closer to announcing their new women’s manager. It could easily be an unwanted distraction in north London, if interim coach Renee Slegers paid it any attention.
Eidevall resigned from his post of three years weeks before Edu Gaspar, sporting director of both the Arsenal men’s and women’s teams, followed suit at London Colney. A void in decision-making has opened up, but Slegers has remained steady handed.
While batting away questions about her longer-term ambitions week after week, she has led the Gunners on a nine-game unbeaten streak in the WSL and Europe, with goals flowing, the defence tightened and the Arsenal swagger back in their step.
Her temporary reign has already been extended into the new year, and there is sense among some fans she is a shoo-in for the position after adapting so naturally, and she is clearly enjoying her new role.
Sitting down with Sky Sports ahead of Sunday’s game with Liverpool, she has a buoyancy and an air beyond someone who returned from Norway after a 3-1 win at Valerenga barely 12 hours ago as we wander through the club’s London Colney training base.
It is borne from a self-confidence that, regardless of the backing – or lack of – from above, or even how things turned out since becoming her old boss’ stand-in, she was never here to act like one.
In Scandinavia, she had given 18-year-old Katie Reid her full Champions League debut. She regularly emphasises how she wants her Arsenal to play. These certainly do not feel like the actions of someone holding the fort.
Katie Reid made her first ever Champions League start in Thursday’s win at Valerenga
“You can see the team growing at the moment,” she says. “The players want to play a type of football, the Arsenal way. It’s integrated into the club and it’s what we strive for, as many minutes on the pitch as possible.
“Many times against Aston Villa we saw that, but against Valerenga in the Champions League too. We were planning ahead anyway [before the announcement] for this block of games, you can’t start a block without a plan.
Slegers says it is not on her mind ‘whether this is an interim or permanent role’
“It’s not on my mind whether this is an interim or permanent role. The club has asked me to do it, and I want to do my best for the team and the club.
“Again, it’s about being in the moment. I owe that to the players, the staff and fans to be in the moment and try to get the best out of that – and now that’s our next game, Liverpool.”
Sunday 15th December 2:00pm
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Arsenal are scoring more, an average of three goals per game so far, and have kept six clean sheets from nine in Slegers’ fast start.
The underlying numbers have not changed too much, with the Gunners seeing about the same amount of the ball and the same proportion in the final third as they did under Eidevall. But they are more efficient in both boxes, more switched on and crucially, according to in-form Alessia Russo, “more confident”.
Unleashing her full potential has been no coincidence and was something Eidevall never quite managed despite her 12 league goals last season.
Russo is likely to make her 50th Arsenal appearance against Liverpool on Sunday, with eight of her 25 goals for the Gunners to date coming in the short period since Slegers’ arrival.
Although she has worked closely with Gunners legend and assistant coach Kelly Smith in recent weeks on fine tweaking aspects of her game, a lot of that added self-belief comes down to Slegers’ light-touch approach, restoring the freedom to her game which saw her thrive at Man Utd.
“There’s been small talks between me and Alessia, it hasn’t been a big project,” she says. “It’s just checking in ahead of games, game plans and details we want her to do in her positioning.
“Confidence is such a hard word – what is it, how do you create it? How easy is it to break it? It’s about playing players to their strengths, giving them belief in what they’re good at, understanding themselves and each other, that’s something which leads to confidence.
“Alessia wants to do more, always. She wants to do better. She’s critical of herself – in a good way – which helps her move forward.”
Russo’s double in the 4-0 win over Aston Villa last weekend helped Arsenal move up to third, the highest they have been all season and four points behind second-placed Manchester City, although Chelsea look an unlikely prospect to catch at the top.
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Highlights of the Women’s Super League match between Arsenal and Aston Villa.
In theory, Slegers may be long gone from the manager’s seat by the time we find out. Going by Arsenal’s current public position, she would only have one more match in charge following Sunday’s trip to St Helens, with a winner-finishes-top Champions League group game with Bayern Munich on Wednesday their final outing until mid-January.
But, naturally, she talks as though she will be, focusing on the bigger picture rather than even acknowledging her own position.
She says: “We had a clear objective for this block that we wanted to make a step up in the table. We are realistic about things as well though, there’s a lot of points between us and Chelsea but we can’t play without believing we can do it because anyone can slip up at any moment.
“We’re going to do what we can do, and get as many points as possible.”
Slegers talks like she is here for the long term, and has managed with that level of authority over the past two months.
Win those two final games of 2024, starting at Liverpool this weekend, and it might just become too tempting for both parties to turn that into a reality.
Watch Liverpool vs Arsenal live on Sky Sports Football from 2pm on Sunday, kick-off 2.30pm.
