After ripping through London City Lionesses and West Ham in their opening two games to score nine times, one goal and two points in their next two matches at Man Utd and at home to a winless Aston Villa side has already raised external questions – rightly or wrongly – about Arsenal’s title credentials.
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It seems wild so early into any season. But in a league where perennial winners Chelsea can go an entire campaign unbeaten, there is a certain feeling of deja vu in north London after six seasons without a WSL title.
Arsenal have made a habit of tripping up in games they are supposed to win. Two years ago they finished five points off the top but of the six games where they dropped points, five were against teams they finished above. The margins are just that small.
It can give hope that Saturday’s game at Man City, live on Sky Sports, a team who have beaten them just once in their last eight league meetings, can stem the belief that this could be another season of ‘what if’. But equally, they could end the weekend seven points off Chelsea – more than the Blues dropped in the entirety of last season.
“We don’t talk about that kind of thing,” head coach Renee Slegers insists to Sky Sports. She would say the same if it were Arsenal with a four-point lead at the top; control the controllables, as the saying goes. Build consistency.
But even so, she is as aware as anyone about where things need to improve after two contrasting performances with the same outcome – a lack of goals.
At a stoic Man Utd that was understandable, but there was an undeniable feeling of leaving something out on the pitch against Villa after racking up an xG of 2.69 but failing to add to Frida Maanum’s 10th-minute strike – and that itself from a defensive error.
Slegers warned immediately after the game about overanalysing the result and is still reluctant to give too much credence to outside concerns, but there has been an extra focus on finding that clinical touch in training at London Colney this week.
“It’s more about what we do over time and obviously the game at the weekend is the big test of what you’ve been working on, but that’s where our focus needs to go now,” she says.
“I’m not saying we don’t believe in the strengths we have, we’ve shown over time we can score goals but things need to click.
“Scoring goals is the hardest part in football, it has the most pressure, but we’ve shown a lot of strength as a team and individuals in those moments generally.”
Ignoring the noise around one of the biggest clubs in women’s football has always been Slegers’ way, but even she is willing to take issue with some criticism of her methods.
Mariona Caldentey has played all-but 11 minutes of Arsenal’s opening four games and remained on the pitch against Villa for the full 90 as Arsenal’s first-half and dominance slowly ebbed away before Lucy Parker’s 94th-minute equaliser.
Speaking after the game Sky Sports pundit Ian Wright suggested the Spanish midfielder lacked energy and sharpness, suggesting she should have been replaced by Australian Kyra Cooney-Cross – who is yet to play a single minute this season – but Slegers defended her choices in retaining faith in the Ballon D’Or runner-up.
“It can look a certain way but always when it does, there’s so much more going into it,” she said. “But no, players aren’t tired or anything like that.
“It’s early in the season, we’ve had seven-day turnaround between games, but of course you want sharp performances on the pitch.
“When it doesn’t look sharp, it can have different reasons but no, I think physically they should be all okay, otherwise they won’t be on the pitch.”
Last Saturday was the first game since Caldentey was pipped by Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati to the biggest gong in world football, on a night where Arsenal were also named club of the year after their Champions League triumph over the Catalan giants in May.
It marked an unusual moment where Slegers, rarely one to grasp the limelight, took to the stage to to collect the award an delivered a speech which ended by imploring the assembled crowd to “invest in women, invest in women’s sport. When we do that, all of us benefit.”
It was a powerful message from a normally reserved leader, but with a clearly enhanced impact given the size of her audience. Was that why she chose that moment?
“I didn’t know how I was going to feel about it beforehand!” she says. “But it actually went quite okay. I was representing Arsenal and, as a club, it was really good that we could send that message.
“There were two other really strong speeches first from Sarina Wiegman and Hannah Hampton. What I see more and more is that when you get a platform on stage where you can actually get messages out into the world…
“I never like to take those moments, but if you’re there my insight is that you need to take them. You can actually impact society and sports in a way.”
Watch Man City vs Arsenal from 11am on Sky Sports Premier League on Saturday, kick-off 12pm.
