‘I believe in the players’ – Slegers confident that Arsenal will rise to the challenge at Chelsea

Arsenal head coach Renée Slegers says that she has full belief that the players will rise to the challenge of facing Chelsea at Stamford Bridge this afternoon.

The Gunners go to The Bridge looking to bounce back from a 1-0 defeat to Manchester United in the Subway Women’s League Cup semi-finals in midweek.

When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Arsenal boss Slegers said that she has full faith in her side’s ability to bounce back in a big game scenario.

“I think the performances have been good,” Slegers said. “We have belief and the players play with confidence in that sense. I believe in the players and what they’re doing. I think it’s a good moment and we always love to play these big games. The players rise to the occasion and we know the task. We want to win, we need points. In one way, it creates clarity in what we want to achieve and what we’re going after.”

Going on to discuss Chelsea, Slegers highlighted the South West Londoners’ past successes and said that she expects another very close battle.

She said “Of course, [they’re] a team that have been winning trophies over a long time; with Emma [Hayes] and now with Sonia [Bompastor] as well. A lot of winners in that team, they’re a good team. They can do different things, they can set up in different ways, they have threats that we need to manage in a really good way. It’s two top teams going against each other.

“The two games I’ve coached against Chelsea, it’s a close game at Stamford Bridge with a late goal and it’s the 1-1 game. Both games are very close. That’s what we’re expecting in this game as well.

“We’re definitely up for it. Coming off the back of these first three games since January, strong performances in a lot of things on the pitch. The goal is missing, especially against [Manchester] United. We are full of fuel to go into the game.”

A competitive rivalry has built between the two sides in recent years but Slegers doesn’t believe that this will necessarily help the players.

She said “I don’t think it [hostility] helps, so it’s not within my personality to go and fight down the sideline. I don’t think that’s going to help the game, but of course, we are winners, we want to win this game, there’s a rivalry between the two teams and that’s always going to be there. In my opinion, it’s not going to help the players on the pitch, where it needs to happen.”

Arsenal’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Chelsea kicks-off at 12.30pm.