The character we showed to come from behind for the second week in a row was one of the most pleasing factors for Renee Slegers in our 5-1 win away to West Ham United on Friday night.
"Yeah, that was a big part of tonight, of course, because it happened in the opening game at home and then today again," she told us post-match. "So that's of course not the scenario we want and plan for harsh conditions, the ball flies into the net, but it's early in the game and we come back and we have all the time to come back.
"It was a hard game today. It's a very physical opponent, very disciplined. They make it really, really hard and they have some quality up top. So I think intensity was high and it was a hard game for us to play. So again we had to be calm, composed, wear down, be confident that things can happen early or late. And I think what I'm really happy with today again is the team performance.
"We have starters, we have finishers. There's so many players contributing, I think four different goal scorers, players coming on, having such an important impact. So, yeah, I'm really happy for the team."
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Report: West Ham United 1-5 Arsenal Women](https://www.arsenal.com/fixture/women/2025-Sep-12/west-ham-united-women-women-match-report?utm_source=arsenaldotcom&utm_medium=embedded-article&utm_campaign=news)
Renee spoke before the game about needing different tools and methods to beat West Ham compared to London City Lionesses, and Frida Maanum was one of the changes to the starting line-up, going on to pulled us level.
"She always does things so well for us and we wanted to do some things in the game today that we thought fit Frida really well and she did that," our head coach explained. "She scored a really important goal, gets us level again. So I'm really happy with Frida."
Asked about Stina Blackstenius coming on at half-time and making an instant impact, Renee added: "I think that's linked to the tools in the toolbox. We have so many different players with so many different qualities. What we saw today was the spaces and 1v1 moments for the nine and we felt that we needed Stina with the speed on and she did really well."
Lastly, we asked Renee about Caitlin Foord, who took pride in scoring on her 100th Women's Super League appearance.
"Yes, yes, absolutely," she said. "Now there's a lot of individual players and Caitlin, you always know what you're going to get and she works so hard for the team. She does so many things, so she should be very proud of all the years she represented Arsenal and for her performance tonight as well. So I'm really, really happy for her and again, really happy for the team."
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