Renée Slegers: Arsenal Must Sustain Momentum Against Aston Villa
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Renée Slegers aims for Arsenal to demonstrate that their recent success is not just a fleeting achievement when they face Aston Villa at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
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Following victories against Tottenham (2-1 in the north London derby) and Benfica (3-0 in the Women’s Champions League), where Alessia Russo netted all three goals,
the Gunners now have a foundation to build upon after a tough start to the season. However, Slegers emphasizes that two wins do not signify a complete turnaround.
“You work so hard for the rewards, and we are here to win,” she said. “We’ve accomplished this twice now, which is great, but we need to back this up as well.”
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“We emphasized the importance of our performance against Spurs in the North London derby, and it’s the same situation now. The past two wins are encouraging. This is Arsenal, this is the standard we demonstrated last night, and now we need to replicate that with the upcoming game against Villa.”
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Aston Villa come into this match under the guidance of Brian Sørensen. Slegers recognizes that their recent results, combined with a coaching and system change, make it difficult to predict what challenges Arsenal will face.
She reflects on the tough match Villa presented during their last meeting at the Emirates, despite Arsenal having a stronger showing in their away game.
“We need to be prepared and stay humble,” she stated. “Their approach is always a bit of a guessing game.”
“They’re currently transitioning and have altered their system. We’ll see how they approach the match against us. Frequently, teams adopt different strategies when playing us. We must concentrate on our performance and continue to progress from our last outing.”
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The upcoming match on Sunday presents Arsenal with another opportunity to solidify their improvements from the last two matches into something more significant.
With a solid foundation to build on, the next step for Arsenal is to reinforce their recent success against Villa.
Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images
