Renée Slegers was glad to get our 2025/26 campaign off to a winning start
Our manager became the first coach in WSL history to win nine home matches in a row, courtesy of the 4-1 victory against newly-promoted London City Lionesses.
_Here is everything she had to say after the match:_
**on what she made of the game**
It was a hard game for us. The result is 4-1, so that looks very convincing, and I think we were convincing in the end. But the start of the game was very hard. Of course, it's the first game back of the season, the first competitive game.
It's against an opponent that we prepared for, but still, there are a lot of unknowns because of so many new players in their squad. So we had to figure things out, and then unfortunately, they got the penalty in that moment, and we had to come back from that. But I'm so proud that the players stayed calm, they stayed constructive, and they found the solutions together with the staff, who did a really good job as well.
So we did find a solution. We stepped up in our intensity, and I think after 20-25 minutes, especially in the second half, we started connecting like we wanted to on the pitch. We start to understand each other again and create rhythm in our game. So in the end, I'm really happy with the performance.
**on London City Lionesses' threat and how we nullified it...**
What they do is they press high and they go a lot player for player on the pitch, which is you're always balancing on the fine line of beating that press and the whole pitch being wide open, or you'll lose the ball and you don't get rhythm in your game.
And I think that's what happened at the start of the game. But I think we grow into it, and I think it's a good opponent. They're not easy to play against, so that's why I'm even happier.
It's not easy to play against them in the first round of the WSL. They invested a lot, a lot of new players. So I'm really happy that we found the solutions in the end and that we look like us, and Arsenal.
**on Olivia's impact on her debut...**
We're really happy with Olivia and she did a lot of really good things. She brings a lot of threat. There are a lot of individual actions that other players do on the pitch as well that you don't maybe notice much, but hopefully, the fans can see all those things as well.
I think there are a lot of things that individuals do well today on the pitch and in general. But of course, what Liv did was great and fantastic. Scoring the goals, it's always high-pressure moments, and you get very little time to execute your actions and your decisions. I think she did that brilliantly.
**on being the first WSL manager in history to win their first nine home games...**
I was going to say, I'm not here alone. There's a squad of 24 players, there's a very big staff doing all this work, and we've been working together for a while now. So I'm really proud of that as a team performance, because I see all the work that's been done in the background. Everyone works really hard and doesn't always get the exposure. So it's a team performance and we're really proud of that stat. I wasn't aware of that stat and of course, we want to go for more.
**on making Emirates Stadium our home...**
Yeah, it does \[feel like home\]. We love being here. It's such a special place to be here in London. It's a fantastic stadium and it's always filled with so many passionate fans. We are so grateful. I'm very proud to be part of Arsenal and be proud of this club that's always driving things forward.
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