_Arsenal were 5-0 winners over West Ham United in the WSL on Saturday lunchtime. Chloe Kelly scored an hat trick, while Alessia Russo and Beth Mead were also on the score sheet. Renee Slegers spoke to the press post-match, the first three questions are from Arseblog News._
**On causing West Ham problems from wide deliveries…**
I think what’s been the strength of ours is that we don’t do only one thing, we do different things. I think that was, if I narrow it down, it was like 3 or 4 different types of situations we wanted to create, to build the best possible attacks and wide areas is always one element. If you look at the crossing quality from wide areas we have so much quality and that is of course something we want to use. And that’s a big part of our game. And I think that was positive even though we didn’t convert all those chances in the first half. The variety of chances that we create and the different ways we go forward, whether that’s through lines, whether that’s wide, central, or direct. I think that’s what we want to be. We want to be unpredictable. we want to give different threats to the opposition.
**On Chloe Kelly’s return and her ability on both feet…**
I’m very happy with that, of course. I think if you see Chloe at her very best and I think she’s showing that the last two games, she’s such an important player for us. She also contributes in different ways. And then you see that when she was away with injury and also at the start of the season, not really being herself and not being physically comfortable, but now she is and she’s in a great place- physically, mentally, performing so well for some games now. We’re so happy to have her back now.
**On another clean sheet with an unfamiliar back four…**
That’s one of the big ones that we’re very happy with today as a team. We have new partnerships on the pitch, we make changes, players playing different roles on the pitch, having to change roles, players going on, playing in roles that they normally don’t and how that just doesn’t change the way we play. Everything stays the same. Everyone knows exactly what they’re doing and executing their roles. That’s probably one of the things that are most happy with today.
**On the value of squad players during this block…**
Ahead of this block I have so many players ready to perform and I think that’s credit to the staff and the players themselves to constantly analyse, reflect, prepare, physically, mentally, tactically, to be able to be ready to play a role when you need to play it or play another role when you need to play another role. And that’s the position we wanted to bring the team to. I think that’s where we are right now. So I’m really happy with that.
**On Sophie Harwood coming on upfront…**
I made the decision. It had two factors. We wanted to take Olivia off the pitch and we wanted to give the debut to Sophie. And this was the right moment- she had to wait a little bit. But I think that’s part of being a young player, being a part of a big club like Arsenal. You have to wait for your moments, head down, work hard like she’s been doing. And the moment was there today, in training, she’s normally fullback or training in central midfield. And today we ask her to play a role. So that’s another example of ‘I’ve never been in the 9 and I’m going through the role and I’m ready. I’m prepared, and I know what to do out of possession and I’m going to bring my strengths and my hard work in possession.’ She did.
**On what she learned from West Ham’s 0-0 draw with Manchester United in midweek…**
I think it was being closer to being able to break that back five, I think, watching that game, what West Ham did really well was keeping spaces really small and covering a lot of the pitch with the back 5 and the 3 midfielders in front and I think we manipulated that well today to be able to come closer to break the line, break their back five in different areas.
**On players she signed like Borbe, Kelly, Smith and Holmberg being a big part of the victory today…**
I am, of course happy with that. It’s not always easy to go into a big team like Arsenal. But I think all those players have done so well and I think there’s been a lot of hard work in the background, both staff and players and not only technical staff, but other staff as well, to put those players in the best possible position to perform for Arsenal. which is great. We’ve been very intentional and purposeful in our recruitment.
**On Smilla Holmberg’s performance…**
She’s an athletic player and she’s very fast and strong so she’s defensively good. And the way we’ve been using her is putting her a lot in the wides areas. She’s, like I just said, she’s she’s speedy, she’s explosive, and she needs very little space to get a really good cross into the box, which is one of her super strengths. But if you look at the different roles she’s played for Hammarby when she played the right back role, she can play different roles as well. But at the moment in the dynamics that we have in the team and the specifics that we need, she contributes the best when she’s in that position, but that can change later on as well because she can play different roles.
**On Beth Mead playing centrally when she came on…**
There’s a lot of things going into that decision to bring Beth into that position. Certain players coming off and looking at Beth’s qualities, she’s really good in combination play, offering between lines, understanding when she needs to lower and combine finding those balls going forward. When she plays on the right side, she often is playing between the lines. This role is very similar. She’s very good there and she’s an intelligent player, so she understands the role really well from a pressing perspective. So this is what we chose today and it was good and we know that Beth can do this. And I don’t know how that’s going to look moving forward, but we definitely know that Beth can play the channel.
28.Borbe; 31.Holmberg, 3.Wubben-Moy, 5.L.Codina, 24.Hinds; 10.Little(c) (21.Pelova ‘62), 8.Mariona (11.McCabe ‘78); 15.Smith (44.Harwood 90+6), 23.Russo (9.Mead ‘62), 18.Kelly; 25.Blackstenius (2.Fox ‘62)
Subs: 13.Votikova, 14.van Domselaar