‘Everything is set up there for us to perform’ Slegers relishing another Emirates outing

When Arsenal qualified for the UWCL semi-finals, their home game against Leicester City had to be rearranged. It is taking place on Tuesday evening and not only did the date change, but the venue did too. Originally slated for Meadow Park, the decision was taken to move the match to the Emirates, making it nine of 11 WSL games at the club’s main stadium.

Arseblog News asked Renee Slegers in her pre-match press conference whether the move had an eye on Saturday when the Gunners will take on Lyon at home in the first leg of their UWCL semi-final. ‘It was the decision of us together, we want to start this block really well, we want to set our standards and going into the Lyon game on Saturday at the Emirates, it is very good for us to play at the Emirates tomorrow as well.

‘It will set us up really well, we are very happy with the amount of games we have played there this season. The facilities are on a very high level, it is very high level and we can have more fans supporting us and helping us. We love to play at the Emirates.

‘Everything is there for us, it is all set up for us to perform, we love it there and what the fans can bring at the Emirates gives us an extra edge. It is so inspirational and gives the players an extra motivation to go out there and play because they feel so much support. I am sure the fans had a little part in the win against Madrid because they gave us so much energy.

‘We had the belief all the time and the fans in the stands had the belief all the time so that meant a lot to us.’ Slegers would not be drawn on prognoses for Chloe Kelly and Alessia Russo who picked up knocks on international duty, saying only, ‘We take it day by day, tomorrow might be a little soon.’ Initially, Slegers said the same of Daphne van Domselaar, who turned her ankle playing for Netherlands last week.

Later in the press conference, she confirmed the information we reported last week that she could miss as much as six weeks. ‘We assess day by day, it is looking positive and she is doing well. We are still assessing and getting a specialist to look at it and trying to get all the information possible to get her back as soon as possible. When that is I can’t share yet, we don’t know exactly how long it will take, on the long end it will be six weeks.’

In an international break that was very damaging from an Arsenal perspective, one bright spot was Gunners academy graduate Michelle Agyemang, currently on loan at Brighton, scoring minutes inside her debut for the senior England team against Belgium last week. Slegers says her development is a tribute to the work done by staff at the club behind the scenes.

’The structure of the club is to try to do everything we can to get academy players all the way through to senior level and people in the academy department and all the people who work in the transition from academy to senior and who work with the loan players are doing such a good job.

‘We chose to get Michelle on loan last year and this year as well and I think in her case it has worked well, she has been performing well for Brighton as well and I am very happy for her, with her performance against Belgium with the senior squad. She is very keen to learn and she works very hard, I think that is very positive.’

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