_Arsenal were held to a 0-0 draw at home to Manchester United in the WSL on Saturday lunchtime. Unitred’s Jayde Rivière was sent off with 25 minutes to go but the Gunners could not capitalise. Renee Slegers spoke to the press post-match, the first two questions are from Arseblog News._
**On whether this felt like an opportunity missed…**
100%. I think the way we dominate the game, apart from the early chance with Rolfo. In a lot of parts of the game, we were excellent because it’s a really good opponent. They like to be really intense, aggressive in the press. I think we pacified that really well. We took that away from their game. We had to match them in the physicality of the game, the duels, the first and second balls. We did that well as well and especially in midfield and our centre backs in the in the back line. And so that was all positive- there’s a lot of positives in the in the performance. And nil, nil away against United, nil, nil, today against United. I think there’s a lot of progression in the performance today. We have a lot more shots created and a lot more entries into the box, but unfortunately, we didn’t get the ball into the net today, so it feels like two lost points.
**On Arsenal’s third 0-0 draw of the season and consistent struggle to turn dominance into goals…**
It’s always the team so it’s not about individuals. It’s about how and that’s why we take a lot of responsibility as well, how we set up the team, how we play players to the strengths, what we choose to focus on in our training weeks. But like I said, I think there was a lot of things that were much better today. So if you look at the amount of shots and the chances created, we should have scored today. So I would be more worried if we weren’t creating the chances. I think we’ve had a period in the first half of the season where we created much less. So I think that’s positive and now it’s about the final detail to get the ball into the net.
**On wastefulness costing Arsenal two points today…**
Definitely. Because there’s a lot of things that we do really well in the game. Pacifying their press, progressing the ball up the pitch. And from our defensive side, I think we are really good and disciplined. We do things together, we are connected. There’s high cohesion. Players are playing their roles and we create from turnovers, we go forward. We’re creating set pieces. I think our the game craft was good today as well, how we deal with different moments in the game. But yeah, unfortunately, the ball needs to go in and that didn’t happen today.
**On Tullis Joyce going down twice in the game and the wider WSL issue of goalkeepers stopping the game…**
It’s frustrating for the players on the pitch because when you have momentum and you want to keep the rhythm going you don’t want the ball to be dead and I think also frustrating, if I look at the bigger picture, I think. There’s so many people investing so much to come and and watch us and in the stadium on TV. I think the product needs to be attractive and I think this is probably one of the areas that that brings the entertainment down a little bit. I have not much time to think about the exact solution, but I think there’s other people thinking about the solution, hopefully.
**On whether there could be a rule that means only captains can go to the bench during stoppages…**
I’ve heard about that, yeah. I think that that could be an example of it but I think there’s so much at stake. I think teams coaches and players anre always looking to stretch the rules. So I wonder what what will be the next? It will always be something. I think is important that we keep the game attractive and there’s a lot at stake, but it shoul also be entertaining for the fans.
**On the quality of Arsenal’s shooting today…**
Yeah, we look at how we set the player up to get a clear shot, the angle of the shot, but then the actual shot as well. So I think that’s what we just discussed. I think that we could have done better because there’s around 25 shots. I think we often aim to be around 40 to 50% on target and we’re not close at all. So I think a lot goes off target today as well, but as I said, it’s a team performance. So looking at it and all reviewing it but we keep on believing that the goals will come because we’ve shown that before that we have good finishers in the team and how we can set up really good attacks. So it will come.
**On Stina Blackstenius not getting much space when she came on…**
I don’t know exactly how many minutes after she comes on, Rivière gets the red card and that’s when the game changes and there’s less space in behind. So that’s one of Stina’s big strengths running in behind, but she’s actually also really good with her runs into the box from crosses. But there wasn’t as much space for her.
**On whether the title is realistically achievable now this season…**
We make it harder for ourselves with this result. We wanted and needed three points today so that’s two point lost for us, so we make it harder, absolutely. There are still games left to play tomorrow, so we’ll see the results in those games. That’s outside of our control, but as long as it’s possible, we keep on we keep on chasing and we are looking to climb the table.
**On whether Arsenal need to add more in the January transfer window…**
I’m really happy with the squad. Of course, we have Leah coming back in now as well after injury. Daph is very close. Smilla has come in and added some new qualities. Chloe hopefully doesn’t take too long before she’s back either, so there are players coming back, so I don’t think we necessarily have to go. We will be active in the window. We will look at what’s happening and what we can do and we’re always planning windows ahead. It’s obviously open at the moment but I want to have focus on the squad that we have right now and the players coming back and the quality that we have already. So I think we have high quality players in the squad.
**On whether the team lost their pre Christmas momentum with the winter break…**
We will never know if break was shorter we would have come back and win and score our chances against United. We will never know so that’s that’s speculating, but I think breaks are important for players because there’s a lot of demands on the players. Us, for example, being active in five competitions, national team football, tournaments and summers. So the break is absolutely essential for the players to be sustainable.
**On Arsenal failing to beat a member of the ‘big four’ so far this season…**
I think it’s important that you get wins against those teams, especially at home and if I look at the performance today and how we dominate United and I think we set ourselves up really well to get a win today. So yeah, that’s that’s frustrating.
**On whether Arsenal could take more risks in these games…**
I think we did today. I think we invested quite some numbers high up the pitch, especially the last 30 minutes in the game. We have to respect opposition, United are a very strong team and they’ve also added some quality into their squad. We’ve seen how they’ve come back several times against us last season here at the Emirates and if you look at their game against Spurs, so it’s always balancing things as well as we can. But I think if you look at the last 30 minutes in the game, we are taking risks and we are investing a lot of numbers going forward. Of course, they go down one player as well. But I think we worked that scenario quite well. The only detail was that we wanted to get the ball into the box more often from certain areas. So that’s something we will look at. I think it’s always going to be a balancing act against the top teams.
**On whether they might have been better off playing 11 v 11 in the closing stages…**
I think that’s what you often see happen because they know their main objective is to defend something, so they were probably thinking less about how they want to go forward. So they make spaces really small and they don’t have to think much about the next action going forward. United are excellent at defending their box and they’re really good at it. They have a really good goalkeeper and I think I want to compliment them for how they defend the box. They didn’t make it easy for us at all, but if you look at the amount of shots and entries in the box, we should have scored today.
28.Borbe; 2.Fox (31.Holmberg ‘82), 6.Williamson, 7.Catley (3.Wubben-Moy ‘89), 11.McCabe; 10.Little(c), 8.Mariona; 9.Mead (21.Pelova ‘82), 12.L.Maanum (25.Blackstenius ‘63), 15.Smith (19.Foord ‘63); 23.Russo
Unused: 5.L.Codina, 24.Hinds, 40.Williams, 44.Harwood