Renée Slegers says Arsenal’s recent improvement will only mean something if they can carry it into Sunday’s meeting with Aston Villa at the Emirates.
Renée Slegers wants Arsenal to prove their recent improvement is more than a two-game streak when Aston Villa visit the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
Arsenal have won their last two games, beating Tottenham 2-1 in the north London derby before a 3-0 win over Benfica in the Women’s Champions League, when Alessia Russo scored all three goals.
After a difficult start to the season, those results have given Arsenal something to build on, but Slegers is not treating two wins as proof that everything has suddenly been fixed.
“You work so hard for the rewards, and we are here to win,” she said. “We’ve done that twice now, which is great, but we have to back this up as well.
“We set it after to Spurs in the North London derby and it’s the exact same now. It’s good, it’s two good wins. It was Arsenal, this was us last night, and now we have to back it up with the next game coming up against Villa.
Villa arrive under Brian Sørensen, with Slegers aware that their recent results, along with a change of coach and system, make it harder to know exactly what Arsenal will face.
She also remembers how difficult Villa made the previous meeting at the Emirates, despite Arsenal producing a more dominant performance away from home.
“We have to be prepared, we have to be humble,” she said. “What they’re going to do, it’s always a guessing game.
“Of course, they’re in a transition now and they’ve changed their system. Let’s see what they do against us. Very often it happens that teams do something different against us. Let’s see what their game plan is. We have to focus on ourselves and keep building on our last performance.
Sunday is another chance to show that the improvement of the past two matches is beginning to become something more substantial.
Arsenal have given themselves something to work with. Against Villa, the next step is to back it up.
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