Arsenal boss Renée Slegers' half time team talk sparks victory 

Arsenal boss Renée Slegers 'firm' half-time team talk inspires Gunners 

Renée Slegers issued her firmest team talk as Arsenal manager during their narrow 2-1 victory over Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium after being left disappointed by her side's display.

A lacklustre first half in which the Gunners had failed to build on Olivia Smith’s brilliant opener and found themselves pegged back by Beata Olsson exposed familiar patterns.

Olsson’s equaliser saw Slegers’ side caught in transition once more while they invited pressure from an injury-stricken Liverpool side who are yet to win in the Women’s Super League.

It left Slegers unhappy with her side’s opening 45 minutes display, a fact she did not seek to hide during her half-time team talk.

“The [team talk was the] firmest it's ever been. I wasn't happy after the first half. I think no one was,” she said.

“I was really clear that we had to be higher in our standards for the second half. Intensity wasn't high enough, ball speed wasn't high enough, positioning wasn't early enough, not enough of the ball movement. 

“So I was really firm at half-time. But everyone agrees, all the players agree.”

Slegers’ programme notes heavily emphasised the importance of momentum in Arsenal’s final block of the year after taking a heavy hit in their 3-2 loss to Bayern Munich and draw to Tottenham Hotspur before the international break.

And while Stina Blackstenius’ late winner will give a platform to build off, after she clinically controlled Emily Fox’s ball to turn and rifle into the top corner, the performance did little to shift Arsenal’s apparent inertia to return to their potential.

Slegers diagnosed the issue in reference to in-game momentum and called for a better response from her squad in adversity.

“If I talk about momentum, you can't control 90 minutes because there is an opponent that wants to do things as well,” she explained.

“What we have to get better at is the way we react when we concede the goal. Those are key events in games. 

“For example, how do you move on? What's our strategy after those moments?

“Also after our own goal, we lose a little bit of intensity in everything we do. We get comfortable. We find more backwards passes instead of forward passes.

“That's how you put yourself into a situation that gets hard because we said we wanted to spend time in their half as much as possible - suffocate and stack attacks, which we did much better in the second half.”

The return of captain Kim Little and vice-captain Leah Williamson to the match day squad will provide a boost to Slegers’ hopes of keeping momentum into their midweek Champions League clash against FC Twente.

Little got minutes off the bench and restored a calm to the Arsenal midfield, while Slegers hopes to see Williamson return to the pitch over the next week.

“The first minutes will be against Twente or Everton as it stands now. If things change then things change, it could be later but that's what we're aiming for,” she said.

“[Today] she was in the squad, she was there to get back into a matchday routine and for her leadership in and around the team, but we never planned for her to get minutes yet.”

Above all, however, Arsenal and Slegers can take the three points and move on as they did just enough in their final Emirates Stadium match of the year.

As it stands, it moves them back into the WSL’s Champions League spots as they sit third, although Manchester United will play West Ham United on Sunday.

“I was relieved at the end because I didn't think we performed well today, especially in the first half,” added Slegers.

“In the second half we created chances but we struggled to get the ball into the net, so I was just relieved at the end that we got the three points.

“We absolutely deserved the win today but it didn't come easy to us so the emotion I felt after the game was relieved.”