_Arsenal drew 1-1 with Aston Villa at the Emirates on Sunday in the WSL. Chastity Grant gave Villa a first half lead, Alessia Russo scored a late equaliser. Renee Slegers spoke to the press post match. The first two questions are from Arseblog News._
**On the game feeling very familiar…**
We just said it feels like we’re playing the same game over and over again. We go one goal down from a break and we don’t start with enough urgency. I think ball speed wasn’t high enough. Energy wasn’t good enough on the pitch. Don’t win enough duels, the basics, which have given us the wins against Spurs and Benfica, weren’t good enough from our side today. And we know that Villa has threats and with Vansgaard and Grant. But mostly it’s we don’t set ourselves up well enough because then we end up having to chase it again in the second half and that’s when we show our urgency and our resilience to score that goal, Less with a good goal, but then I also think that leads to less composure in the box because there’s stress and pressure on us to score that goal. So, yeah a lot of things lead back to how we start games starting more urgency and intensity.
**On going 1-0 down for the fifth time this season…**
We have to start better, like I said and the energy wasn’t good enough today and I am responsible for it. And that needs to be better because if we start games like this, any team in the WSL can hurt you but mostly you don’t set it all for yourself and then you end up doing what we’ve been doing in many games, having to chase something in the end where you tend to use a little bit of composure because the stress is high.
**On whether the poor starts are more about the defence or the attack…**
I think it’s energy in general, so how do you present yourself? So me included, how do I present myself? On a match day, in the warm-up and at the start of the game, every individual who is in the team. So general energy, and that’s energy is body language, communication, verbal, nonverbal, connecting, doing your actions with full intent and conviction and I don’t think that was good enough today. So for me, it’s both attacking and defending because if you bring energy on both sides of the ball, we should just set ourselves up well.
**On when she could sense the energy wasn’t right…**
The warm up you can’t analyse because you can have really good warm-up and then the start of the game and it’s all the other way around. So I don’t put too much into that, but it’s more how we start again. Today, whistle blows, are intentional, sharp enough? Of course, Villa have been on a really good run and they have individual qualities. They ask questions with their positioning and the things they do in possession, which we had to solve defensively today. But we want to mostly look at ourselves and see if we can come in with more intent from the start and energy.
**On how much of a setback this is after two wins…**
It is not a step back in in the belief or the confidence because we can do it. I just think we put ourselves in a scenario again where the game just becomes really hard for us. But the belief hasn’t changed, but we have to change this and the way we start, which we did really well against Benfica. Of course, other competition, other opponent, but looking at ourselves, the way we start games is key.
**On Steph Catley coming off injured…**
She came to the sideline twice and I hope she’s okay. I don’t have a medical update yet. But in that moment, we chose to bring on Elisa, who’s been doing well for us.
**On her half time double substitution…**
I think that’s been positive lately. The players coming on, they changed the game for us, they bring their qualities to bring energy and definitely all the five players that came on for us, they played well in the second half so that was really positive. I’m going to review this game and then I’m going to prepare for Liverpool and then see what’s the best fit to start and to finish, but mostly to start because we need to start better.
**On having 56 touches in the box but only eight shots on target…**
It comes back to how are you going to build up and when we create the chances, the chances are good, but we’re in a situation where we’re in the second half we go one go down and pressure is building on us. So I think that plays into the quality of finish that we can produce. But I think what we did well against Benfica was creating more open chances from transition. Today was more against a low block. So you get less time and space, there’s more bodies in the box. So finishes become harder. Everything leads back to the way we set ourselves up from the start of the game.
**On Russo starting as a 10…**
To be honest, this discussion, Alessia scores today again, I don’t see I think this discussion and this topic has been overanalysed and over spoken about. Alessia is a fantastic player. She’s an attacker. She’s in and around to box for us. She gets shots off today. She scores the goal, so I think she’s really doing really well for us.
16.Misa; 22.O.Batlle, 6.Williamson(c), 7.Catley (5.De Almeida ‘70), 24.Hinds (2.Fox HT); 4.Stanway, 32.Cooney-Cross (25.Blackstenius ‘82); 14.Reuteler (19.Baum HT), 23.Russo, 9.Foord; 11.Smith (10.Little ‘70)
Unused: 3.Wubben-Moy, 12.L.Maanum, 28.Borbe, 31.Holmberg