Renée Slegers has issued a clear warning before Arsenal’s trip to Brighton, insisting her side must match intensity and manage conditions to secure three points.
Renée Slegers has warned Arsenal will need to be at their best to take three points from Broadfield Stadium, recalling last season’s defeat at the same venue as a reminder of Brighton’s threat.
“They’ve had a challenging run, but I think they’re a good team and last year away at Crawley wasn’t a good performance from us and we lost that game,” she said.
“So we know what they can do, and we know that we have to, again, what we’ve done really well since January, that we have to be really humble for the task, because it won’t be easy with the circumstances.
“The conditions, the way Brighton play, certain threats that they have, so we really are going to have to work hard to nullify that and believe in the strengths that we have, the strengths that we possess to overcome those challenges.”
Brighton have won five league matches this season, drawn two and lost eight, scoring 19 goals and conceding 20. Slegers made clear that their variability in approach adds to the difficulty of preparation.
“So, again it’s for us to create our own guarantees and our own known, and that’s what we can do and stacking good, humble actions on the pitch.
“We’ll have to do those things with conditions and the type of game it will be. It’s going to be so important for us. But the unknown will be there because I think Brighton is a really good team with lots of rotations and ideas in possession. They have an aggressive press.
“But last time around when we played them away they did something completely different. So we’ll see what their game plan is for Sunday. We’ll see what their game plan is. Like I said we have to focus on ourselves and the things that we need to do regardless of the scenario, and that will guarantee things for us. So that’s within our control.”
Arsenal go into the game in fourth place in the WSL, two points behind Manchester United in second and one behind Chelsea in third, but with a game in hand on both sides and the best defence in the division, having only conceded 10 goals in 14 games despite the problems they’ve had with injured defenders and keepers.