Are Arsenal too nice to end Women’s Super League title drought?
Arsenal, 10 points adrift of the Women’s Super League leaders, suffered a 4-2 defeat at Manchester City on Sunday and are poised to undertake a "big review" of their season during the international break. The loss intensified questions over whether the squad possess the grit and nastiness required to mount a title challenge.
The technical quality of the squad is high; the club have assembled what the coverage describes as a world-class group, yet doubts persist about resilience and tenacity. Arsenal last won the WSL in 2019, and sources close to the players frequently describe the squad as a "family", very supportive of each other and full of "great people". Those personal qualities, and a public sense of unity, are repeatedly noted when watching games or listening to player interviews.
Observers point to the team’s amiable culture — the club has built a group of "good eggs", described as polite, courteous and professional — as a potential factor in tight games. While such traits are widely admired, commentators question whether they translate into the combative behaviours needed in the decisive moments of a title race. The piece asks explicitly whether the squad might be "too nice" to overcome reigning rivals.
Incidents that would qualify as "housery" have been rare: the last comparable episode cited is Katie McCabe’s hair pull against Chelsea in last season’s Champions League quarter-final. McCabe, identified here as a senior, influential player who left this summer to join Chelsea, was singled out as someone Arsenal could rely on to "roll up her sleeves and get stuck in". Statistical context offered in the coverage notes that last term no Arsenal players registered in Stats Perform’s list of the top 20 WSL players for percentage of duels won, and only one Arsenal player has been shown a red card in a WSL game since 2021-22.
The article contrasts Arsenal’s make-up with the presence elsewhere of overtly combative figures, naming Lucy Bronze as an example of a "never-say-die" character for England and Erin Cuthbert as a gritty battler "who has helped Chelsea lift seven league titles". An Arsenal example of a defensive leader is Gabriel Magalhães, while the team do have leadership in Leah Williamson, "who has led England to two European titles"; the piece also notes it is possible to be successful without a Roy Keane-type figure.
When asked whether Arsenal possess enough of a nasty edge to win the league, Renée Slegers replied: "I think so, and nastiness or that grittiness, that can express itself in different ways, and I think we have certain ways in which we express that and [in] which we can do that. But of course, with our performances where we haven’t been at our best, you maybe don’t see those moments as much which we can bring, but we’re convinced that we can bring that to games as well, in our way, the Arsenal way, because it’s definitely there." The manager’s defence emphasised different expressions of grit rather than a single, confrontational style.
By contrast, the coverage highlights a Sky Sports clip of Andrée Jeglertz’s pre-match team talk at Manchester City, which concluded: "The most important thing: we are Manchester City, we are playing at home and we are winning this game." The piece says that matter-of-fact instruction illustrated a level of conviction not easy to imagine hearing in the current Arsenal dressing room, and it adds that Slegers is seen as an "intelligent, detail-oriented coach of whom the players are very fond."
Arsenal will use the international break to carry out the "big review" aimed at determining where things have gone "horribly wrong — again — in the early stages" of the season, a process the club hopes will identify changes needed to close the gap on Manchester City and Chelsea.