Renée Slegers says she has felt the full support of Arsenal’s board and has praised her senior players for showing “monumental leadership” as she tries to find solutions to a poor run of form before Sunday’s pivotal trip to Manchester City.
Arsenal have won only one of their past five matches, a sequence that has left Slegers under mounting pressure. They let a two-goal lead slip to draw at Paris FC in the Women’s Champions League on Wednesday, and in the Women’s Super League they have fallen seven points behind City, the leaders and defending champions, having scored once in their past three league games.
Speaking on Friday, Slegers described a “strong togetherness” at the club. Asked whether she felt the full support of the board, she replied: “Yes, that’s what I felt. That’s been positive and that’s helped me. The club’s leadership has been really good and positive for me in this moment, because everyone thinks this is a difficult time and this is not something that we want for the team and for the club.” She named the director of football Clare Wheatley, the chief executive Rich Garlick, the director of football operations James King and the technical director Jodie Taylor, calling their leadership “superb”, and said she wanted to give everything back to the club. “I believe in the potential that we possess. I believe we can come out of this.”
The Arsenal manager opened her media duties with an apology for not speaking to reporters after Wednesday’s game, when Arsenal conceded a bizarre penalty after Leah Williamson was penalised for handling the ball in the area when she thought she was taking a goal-kick. Slegers’s assistant, Aaron D’Antino, stepped in that night. “After the game there was emotion from my end,” she said, explaining that she made the decision to be with the team instead. She added: “I will be there next time.”
Slegers said she had told the squad: “I’m angry, I’m really angry, and let’s see, let’s try to use the emotions that we’re feeling and let it fuel us moving forward.” She praised the players’ response since Wednesday, saying they “have been brilliant” and that the captains in the team had been monumental — the strongest leadership she has seen so far working within football, and calm, composed, solution-orientated and laser-focused. “It’s strange because I have to be finding a solution, so I have to be calm, I have to give direction, I have to lead now,” she said. “But at the same time, what I also feel is gratitude for how everyone is responding and how together we are and how the session on the pitch was today.”
Sunday presents a considerable challenge. City have a 100% record in the WSL this season and have won all their home league matches since Andrée Jeglertz took over as head coach in the summer of 2025. The standings reflect the gap Arsenal must close: City top the table on 12 points from four games, with Tottenham and Chelsea on 10, while Arsenal sit seventh on five points with a goal difference of zero.