Hello, Arsenal Women aficionados!
Well, we all knew this would happen, eventually, but I would have preferred for it to happen at another time and – most importantly – at another place. Guro Reiten’s late penalty at Stamford Bridge ended Renée Slegers’ unbeaten start and, most crucially, took any sense of jeopardy away from the title race, handing the title to Sonia Bompastor’s impressive team with no less than ten games to play, almost half of the entire campaign.
Anything could still happen between now and May, but the seven-points gap between Chelsea and the current closest contender, Manchester United, is much wider and deeper than the crude numbers.
We gave Chelsea a run for their money, and it took a debatable penalty call for the hosts to take the three points and run away with the title, leaving our girls wondering what it might have been if Beth Mead, Frida Maanum Emily Fox or Mariona Caldentey were a bit more clinical in front of goal. All things considered, Chelsea deserved to win the game because they created more and seemed more front-footed and in control of the game, but we had our chances to win it, which unfortunately we didn’t convert.
Not everything is lost, though, with the earlier four-nil thrashing of Brighton away from home in the League Cup propelling us into the competition semi-finals, and both the UWCL and FA Cup still up for grabs.
Although the league title is out of reach, the next ten games will define who can be considered as Chelsea’s legitimate challenger for the foreseeable future and it will be vital to restore our status as THE challenger, THE title favourite alongside Chelsea: the last five seasons saw Manchester City finish second in three separate occasions, with Arsenal and Manchester United takin the runner-up place one time each, but no club truly separated itself from the chasing pack.
It should be our mission to create a gap between us and the Manchester clubs or anyone aspiring to challenge for the title: in the near future, it should be Arsenal and Chelsea (possibly in this order…) challenging until the last game for the title, and then the rest. It used to be like that, not long ago, so I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t get back there.
RENÉE’S WORDS
Defeated but not deflated, Renée Slegers sounded assertive and confident when speaking after the away loss to Chelsea, insisting that the defeat “[…] isn’t going to shake us because we have a good foundation of what we are doing, how we are growing, what we want to develop so I think we’re stable enough to not get shaky off one loss against Chelsea.”
Amen to that, Renée.

Amen
We showed we can compete with Chelsea; we need to keep going and hopefully the tables will turn sooner rather than later.
When asked to develop about the strategy planned for this game, Renée Slegers conceded that we should have been more clinical in front of goal: “It was a top game in women’s football, if I distance myself from my role that was good for women’s football. From our end, we had to get through that first period of the game, the first ten minutes, we knew that Chelsea would come out fast and get in behind us and go forward, that is what they did. They are very powerful. I am happy the girls got through that phase of the game, then we start to establish ourselves in the game, we take more and more control and play the game we want to play. We may have been a little bit sloppy more than we usually would be, but we play some really good football at times. What was lacking today was goals, we created one or two good enough chances to score, you know you are not going to get a lot against Chelsea. Next time we need to be more clinical with the chances and we knew it was going to be tight with small margins and details that matter.”
Back to midweek and the away win against Brighton, Renée Slegers gave away some interesting lines about the development of Rosa Kafaji and drew a comparison with another up-and-coming midfielder, Kyra Cooney-Cross: “[…] we see Rosa as a great player for the future and for now for Arsenal. What do we need as a team and what qualities does Rosa bring to the team? One of the things you mention is as a dribbler, as a one v one player and has intent and deep runs. That is what we want on the wings, depending on which side and which game etc. But she is a player who can bring that to the team.
We put high value on defending so it is very important to us that you do your role in all phases of the game really well, some parts of it are quite complex, especially if you come here as a new player. We accept the process Rosa is in, she is doing really well and she is progressing really well.”
If you look at the positions in our team the central position is probably even more complex than the wide positions out of possession, looking at the whole picture. I was happy with a lot of parts of what Rosa did on Wednesday.
We have seen with many younger players when they come to Arsenal they might need some time to adjust. It is a big step to come to a big club with high demands, you move to another country in many cases so the whole life situation changes and you get to know new coaches, new staff members, new teammates. We accept that can take a little bit of time, you could see that with Kyra as well.
Kyra is an excellent, excellent player and she has done so well and you look at the level she is performing at at the moment she is very good for us. You could see it took time to adjust to Arsenal and life in St. Albans and everything that we expect from that player in that position but if you look at how she is performing in that position now I am very happy with her, she has invested a lot of work.’
Rosa Kafaji has a lot of work to do, but she has good examples ahead of her of players who struggled at the beginning, kept their heads down and went on to become integral to the team. The Sweden international has great technical qualities, flair, an electric change of pace and direction and an eye for goal, but she needs to improve her focus during the 90 minutes and contribute even when her dribbling if off or when there is not through ball to be played.
LESSONS LEARNED
This team can contend with anyone, really. A potentially tricky mid-week away game ended up being a stroll in the park, with Brighton unable to contain us after a disciplined, focused performance in the first half. Despite making several changes to the line-up, we steamrolled over Brighton to book our place in the semi-finals and earn the right to register a second three-peat in the League Cup, after the three consecutive wins in 2011, 2012 and 2013. If we end up being “the best of the rest” in the league, make a deep run in Europe and lift one domestic trophy or two, then it would be difficult to argue about the growth of this group of players and the staff behind them.
To do so, we need to establish a clearer, stronger hierarchy at the top of the pyramid: with Chelsea out of reach, Manchester City and Manchester United are the main threat to our status and defeating them consistently should become our first objective, from now on. If we gain a foothold in this race, we will have more opportunities to challenge Chelsea in every domestic competition, and with opportunities will come trophies (hopefully) and the belief that we are equal to Chelsea.
At this moment in time, Chelsea are unattainable because of the quality of their squad, the infrastructure in place and the investments the club has been making, while we slipped away from the top because of poor recruitment and mismanagement our resources at our disposal.
There is just as much that Renée Slegers and her players can do without heavy and wise investment from the club.

Picture courtesy of Arsenal.com
Chelsea unveiled their one-million-pounds signing right before the kick-off at Stamford Bridge, and while we don’t necessarily need to go that far with our investments, we do need more quality and depth on the bench: while we introduced Rosa Kafaji and Stina Blackstenius, Sonia Bompastor was able to call on Guro Reiten and Lauren James from the bench, which paints a gloomy pictures for the Gunners.
A first step in the right direction has been made, though, with Arsenal expected to announce the arrival of American left-back Jenna Nighswonger from Gotham FC. The former NWSL Rookie of the Year will provide cover and competition for Katie McCabe, which seems to indicate that Steph Catley is now considered a full-time centre-half – and rightly so. Hopefully more reinforcement will follow soon, especially in wide areas upfront.
NEXT’S UP
Our players will be on the pitch again on Wednesday night, if the weather allows, to take on Bristol City in the FA Cup. The game, which was already postponed once, will be played at Meadow Park and its proximity to the league games at Chelsea we just lost and the away trip at Manchester City the following Sunday should see Renée Slegers rotate her players heavily. We can definitely expect Manuela Zinsberger, Lotte Wubben-Moy, Laia Codina and Stina Blackstenius to start the game, with several starters dropping to the bench to catch a breather before the big game against Manchester City.
As usual, we will talk after the weekend, hoping to comment on a convincing performance and win against a direct rival for the UWCL spots. The away loss at Chelsea means that we dropped to the fourth place, two points behind City in third and three points behind United in second place. Needless to say, a win would be massive to restore our credentials and shake off a narrow but damaging loss to the reigning champions.
Speak to you soon!

Italian living in Switzerland, Gooner since mid-nineties, when the Gunners defeated my hometown team, in Copenhagen. I started my own blog and podcast (www.clockenditalia.com) after after some experiences with Italian websites and football magazines. Covering Arsenal Women with the occasional rant about the boys.
Thank you Andrea. I feel relieved Renee finally becomes our head coach.
We need a long term role for women’s coach, and again, a long term technical director. A rebuilt and rejuvenation is a must for challenging the throne.
COYG
Yes, we finally have some stability in the dugout and Renée truly deserved it. Let’s see how much influence she will have on recruitment and squad building, if she’s as good with transfers as with tactics and squad management, we might be up for some good surprises!