Renee Slegers said that Sunday's 1-0 defeat at Chelsea was a tough one to take.
"Yes definitely, we came here and we wanted to win, that’s what we went for, that’s what we needed in the league as well," she told us after the loss at Stamford Bridge. "We knew it was going to be a tight game with small margins and details that were going to make a difference and I think that happened today.
"I think we’re quite happy with some things we did in the game, especially how we grow ourselves out of hard times and then create what we want to create in the game so that’s some good things we did today, we’re very close to keeping a clean sheet today again, then it was a penalty given, they score the penalty and the only thing we can do is be more clinical and ruthless in front of the opposition goal and that’s about the whole team, how we can create even bigger chances against a team like Chelsea so yes, disappointed with the loss today."
Caitlin Foord had to be replaced just before half-time, and Renee said that it was partly down to Caitlin's own decision to come off for the team.
"I think you’ve seen she’s been struggling with a muscle that hasn’t been 100%, she was good enough to start but she felt it coming and she was fair, she said this is Chelsea, this is a hard game, I need to be 100% otherwise it’s better if someone else does it," she said. "But I think she contributed, the minutes on the pitch she did really well and I think a professional decision of her's so, that’s what happened."
Renee also spoke about the teriffic support from our fans, as well as the desire to start another long unbeaten run.
"You could hear them sing during the game," she said. "At moments in the game, when the rest of the stadium was quiet and you could hear the Arsenal fans. I mean they mean so much to me and to the girls as well, to the team, again, thank you so much for coming out and yeah, they supported us really well today and sorry we couldn’t bring the win.
"We don’t get to shake off of this because we know this is one of the hardest opponents we play against in the season but obviously we felt like we’re getting closer and we can compete with Chelsea definitely because I think we’re on a similar level, we just have different qualities as teams.
"But this isn’t going to shake us because we have a good foundation of what we are doing, how we are growing, what we want to develop so I think we’re stable enough to not get shakey off one loss against Chelsea."
Copyright 2025 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.