Every word of Renee’s post-Spurs press conference

Renee Slegers was in high spirits as she sat down for her post-Tottenham Hotspur press conference after seeing her side beat our north London rivals 5-0 at Emirates Stadium.

Here’s what she had to say on the following subjects.

on Kyra Cooney-Cross winning the ball high up the pitch:
It’s not specifically with Kyra individually, but it’s as a team. We want to press and all players play different roles on the pitch and often she plays in that role where she is maybe the player that wins the ball for us.

on focusing on Spurs switching players on the wings:
No, we’re very specific at what we do, so we go through all possible scenarios when we get the line-up. The analysts watch the warm-ups, so we have all the tools to see what we think the opposition is going to do and how we want to deal with that. We have a plan for everything basically and what they tried to do is get into those pockets and make it hard for us to defend that left foot on the right side and I think we managed it really well.

on Lotte Wubben-Moy’s omission from the squad:
She had a muscle problem during the week and she’s going to get a scan.

on Chloe Kelly enjoying herself on her debut:
There were a couple of tactical messages and just checking in, ‘are you okay with the role to play’ and set-pieces of course, but my final message was enjoy getting your comeback in an Arsenal shirt. It’s a very special occasion, so enjoy your football. I think she’s been smiling a lot in training and working really hard so I think she’s very passionate as a person. It’s important that you have players that are in a good place, feel good, are motivated because then you’ll get the best out of yourself and hopefully that’s what we can keep building on with Chloe.

on her reception from the fans:
Definitely, I was very impressed, but in general the crowds have been so inspiring for us.

on Mariona’s ability being like ‘an octopus’:
I think it's a real good analogy. The octopus was quite unexpected! No, she is amazing. Everything that football is to me, I think she understands. The best thing about her is that she always works really hard and she sets up really good situations for herself, but everything she does makes it easier for the other players to play as well. She creates a little bit more time and space for everyone. She reads things, she sees things. She is on such a high level, so we're so happy to have her. And don't want to take away from all the rest, because there are so many individuals in our team who play on a very high level similar to her, but I agree with you, she's an outstanding player.

on Spurs and Robert Vilahamn’s project:
I know Robert, we did our training badges in Sweden, so I have huge respect for him and who he is and what he wants to build. And I think, of course, with Tottenham, he's on the journey and I fully support what he's doing. It's always good to hear that from the opposition to understand what it's like to play against us. But I want to give him credit for the way he wants to work and how he's building and how he believes in what he wants to do. And yeah, I wish him all the best.

on whether this was us at our best:
At times, definitely. I think, the whole event, I think with playing at the Emirates. Beautiful pitch, big crowds, and the way the women's game is growing, and how Arsenal is leading in this. I'm just very proud. And then, of course, it's about the football that we play. And I think at times we play brilliant football today on the ball, but also how quickly we counter-press and win the ball back, and we score different types of goals. But then there are still periods in the game where we could have done better. So I think we're on such a high level at times today, and then the next level is to be that consistently over 95 minutes.

on playing for the team, not individuals:
Yeah, and that's the kind of thing we want to build. So, we want to be unpredictable and hard to defend and hard to beat. And I think that's what you create if you have different threats. So, if you only have one type of threat, it's going to be easier for opposition to nullify. But now, when we come with different things, I think it's going to be very hard for opposition. So, that's really what we work towards. And, of course, I'm in the lucky position that we have so many good quality players in this squad.

on the clean sheet:
Aaron D’Antino, he has a big part in that because he's working with the girls on the defensive part of the game. I think the buy-in is big. I think the plans that we have, the game plans that we have, are good and strong. And it's always, we put high value on keeping clean sheets. And we also work with the mindset and how we emphasise things ahead of games and in trainings, how important it is for us to not concede. And I think it's about the details. I think Steph Catley is a great example. She's doing so many things so well today in the game, which you might not even notice. But that helps us so much, getting into the right positions, making the right decisions, and not even getting the opposition coming close to our goal.

on our mindset:
It's about, I think, what we as coaches think is important and how the girls also think it's important now that we want to go for clean sheets every game, that defensive solidity is such a big part of our game. And it's about the trust in the team, that the forwards can trust that the players at the back and the goalkeepers keep it clean. And then the goalkeepers and the players at the back, they can trust that the front players will score a goal, and that trust is in the team at the moment. Not saying that we split the units because we do everything together. So we defend together and we attack together. And that's also a big part of our strength, but I think there's just big trust within the team, within the roles and the collective, that we can score goals and that we can keep clean sheets.

on such a dominant performance:
I think they have some really good threats within their team. So the front four players that started for them today, we had to nullify them because I think they're good individuals. And looking at the line-up, I thought they were going to go for fast attacks and counter-attacks with some speed in behind as well. And I think credit to the girls that we deal with that so well. And then we set ourselves up to create attacks. And I wasn't expecting, what did you say, 27 shots? No, that's very big for us because I think we're, I'm not sure, but not many games where we've had 27 shots. And I'm also happy with almost 50% on target. That's something we work with as well.