Every word of Renée's pre-Leicester presser

Our Gunners are back in Barclays Women's Super League action tomorrow as we take on Leicester City at Emirates Stadium.

In her pre-match press conference, Renée Slegers answered questions on our opponents, team news and playing back-to-back matches in N5.

Here is everything our head coach had to say:

on the squad’s mentality returning from international break…

Everyone comes back really hungry. I'm feeling good personally and very excited for the block that's ahead of us and the exciting games we're going to play. And the players as well, they've been applying themselves really well in everything we've been doing so far these last couple of days. So, all good.

On the latest team news…

Lotte Wubben-Moy is back training with the team, so she's really progressing, which is positive. Laia Codina is still being managed. Chloe and Alessia took a knock during the international break away with England. It's touch and go for tomorrow and could potentially be tight. And then Daphne van Domselaar, is the same.

On the kind of challenge we expect from Leicester City tomorrow…

I think they're going to fight really hard tomorrow night for points, and I think they'll want to close down spaces as much as they can. They're going to run and they're going to battle, and they're going to try and win duels and create things against us. So, we'll have to be on top of it tomorrow. 

Leicester has a lot to play for, and it's going to be a challenge for us, because I think the way they press and the player-for-player system at moments, we'll have to be really good on the ball to be able to beat that. They also have a little bit of threat up front as well that we have to manage during the game, but we look forward to it, we look forward to the challenge.

On winning Manager of the Month for March…

It's a team performance. I think we won four out of four last block and that's a team performance. I think when the team does well and we're winning games, then I'm happy. So, it's all about the team for me. I'm happy we won four out of four in the last block.

On the squad coming back from the international break for a busy block…

I don't see the risk of rust because I think we've had some big blows on the players during the international break, as well, with the different national teams. So, a couple of players that needed minutes got minutes and they're even more ready now. We're going to need them as well. I don't see any risk of rustiness; it's just a transition, it’s intense to be away with the national teams and you do something else and something else is asked from you and then you come back in and we go the Arsenal way again, and you have to understand your role and play with the Arsenal players again here. 

So, that's the little transition that you need to make to get used to each other again, get used to our style of play, our way of training, how we do our meetings. We've been doing everything we possibly can to get everyone back on the same page here and get ready for Leicester. But like I said before, the girls have been brilliant at applying themselves these last couple of days.

On Chloe, Alessia and Daphne’s availability ahead of Saturday…

Yeah, so we'll see. It's a day-by-day thing; it's small knocks, so we'll have to assess it day by day. So, we'll see. Tomorrow might come too early, but then we'll have to reassess for Saturday. But the focus is on Leicester.

On whether injuries over the international break are bad luck…

I think you always want to look for answers. Everyone does, I think, both the national teams, the clubs from all levels, all departments, trying to find the answers. I think it's probably often a couple of things, a couple of factors coming together. You can analyse what you want, and we always do a really good post-season review on squad availability and what we've seen and what the trends are. Then we'll learn and then we'll go ahead, but you can't control everything. At the moment, we're just in the moment with who's available for us. We have a great squad, so we focus on those players.

On balancing our focus on Leicester and Lyon...

We've been clear as a group that we have two objectives for the block. One of those is getting four out of four in the WSL. That's what we want to go for, that's all we can do. And that starts tomorrow, so it's a big goal for us to reach that. All eyes are set on tomorrow, a very good game tomorrow.

On Michelle Agyemang’s England debut and goal…

I think the structure in the club is that we try to do everything to get academy players through all the way to senior level. I think people in the academy department and staff that are working with the transition from academy to senior and the loan players are doing such a good job. Of course, we chose to get Michelle on a loan last year and this year as well, and I think in her case, it's been working well. 

She's been performing well for Brighton as well. I'm very happy with her and her performance against Belgium with the senior England squad. She's very keen to learn, she works really hard. I think that's very positive for Mich.

On whether the timing of the April international break should be changed…

I think for me it's part of the assessment and of course, clubs are looking at it on different levels. I think it's too early for me to say anything here now, but I think it's definitely something that we constantly need to look at. How are we loading the players? At what moment in the season are they going away? When are the tournaments planned? 

There are more and more Arsenal players. There are more and more competitions, more and more games, so we have to be really smart and careful because the product is growing, which is great but we also need to think about the health of the players.

On how important it is to have consecutive games at Emirates Stadium…

We love playing at the Emirates. Everything is there for us. It's all set up for us to perform. We love it there and I think what the fans can bring at the Emirates, it gives us an extra edge. It's so inspirational and motivational for the players to come out there and play because they feel so much support. The fans had a little part in the win against Madrid because they gave us so much energy. We had to believe all the time and we felt that the fans in the stands had to believe all the time as well. They mean a lot for us.

On Manuela Zinsberger potentially stepping up this week...

I think, in general, we have a really good environment between players. I think they respect each other and support each other all the time in all situations. Everyone is there for Manu, but Manu is a very experienced and mature player. We trust her, of course. She's such a valued member of the team. There's support from all directions to all the other players as well. We're happy to have Manu. I think we have a great goalkeeper union at the moment. Very pleased.

On the reasoning behind moving the Leicester City game to Emirates Stadium…

It was a decision made by us all because we want to start the block really well. That's what we always say. We want to set our standards and going into the Lyon game on Saturday at the Emirates, I think it's very good for us that we get to play there tomorrow at Emirates as well. It will set us up really well. We're very happy with the number of games that we've played at the Emirates this season. Like I just said, the facilities are just on a very high level. It's high performance. We can have more fans supporting us as well, so we love to play at Emirates.

On Leicester conceding very few goals...

I think they've been doing well. I think they use their strengths well. They're very happy to defend, I think they work really hard as a group. It's hard to score against them, both from open play and set pieces and they need it as well. They need to get every point possible. Of course, our away game at Leicester at the start of the season was a hard game for us as well. We ended up scoring one goal, so we know that the challenge is going to be big tomorrow.

On Daphne van Domselaar’s day-by-day assessment…

We assess day by day. It's looking positive and she's doing well, but at the moment, we're still assessing, getting specialists to look at it. We're trying to get all the information possible to get her back as soon as possible. When that is, I can't share yet. We don't know exactly how long it will take, but on the long end, it could be six weeks, but she could also be back earlier.

On whether Renée watches all the international games during the break..

I watch most of the games. I saw the games, but of course, there's phone calls between medical teams and then within the staff at Arsenal as well. You always hope players come back all healthy because it's outside of your control. That's always what you think at the start of an international block, like I hope everyone stays healthy and everyone comes back healthy, and we keep on going. Unfortunately, injuries are a part of the game. I think the last couple of international blocks have been positive for us, so we've got to couple this window, unfortunately.

On whether the injuries have highlighted what is needed for the squad…

It's an ongoing process and most of it happens in the background because we have a recruitment team and staff around it that are working with it consistently in the background. I'm also involved in parts of it, but it's on a consistent level. Of course, it intensifies towards the window, but mostly, I'm very happy with what we're doing here and I'm not thinking too far ahead because we have a very exciting week ahead of us.