Slegers and struggling Arsenal must produce result in WSL north London derby
Renée Slegers and Arsenal face Tottenham in Saturday’s Women’s Super League north London derby, and the Gunners urgently need a positive result after a run of poor form.
Arsenal arrive winless in five WSL matches for the first time and conceded 12 goals in two games, yet it is Slegers who remains under the most scrutiny ahead of the derby; Tottenham sit four points above their neighbours before Saturday’s meeting. The Gunners failed to beat Birmingham at home last Saturday, dropping points against a promoted side for the second time this season.
The Arsenal hierarchy are understood to remain behind Slegers, who guided the club to Champions League glory in May 2025, but the team sit 12 points behind the leaders after six games. That gap, and the draw with Birmingham, has been described as pretty much extinguishing Arsenal’s title hopes and damaging their pursuit of Champions League qualification, leaving them nine points adrift of third-placed London City Lionesses.
Arsenal’s attacking numbers underline their problems: they have the worst shot conversion rate in the league (4.1%), and, according to Stats Perform, the third-worst shooting accuracy (30.6%) and the third-lowest average xG per shot (0.09), despite averaging over 60% possession.
Tactical decisions have drawn criticism, in particular Slegers’ continued use of Alessia Russo in a No 10 role rather than as a centre forward; Russo has scored more WSL goals against Tottenham (eight) than against any other opponent. Arsenal have also struggled against low blocks for a number of seasons, and despite significant summer investment—the club’s window was described as perhaps their strongest in recent memory—the side have looked tactically confounded, mentally bruised and lacking self-belief.
Slegers has repeated her belief she can help the team and maintained after last weekend’s draw that Arsenal will recover when they fix some "details and margins". Tottenham’s recent defensive form has been poor too: they became only the second team in history to concede six or more goals in consecutive WSL games, and their head coach, Martin Ho, said: "It is a little bit of game intelligence and smartness in moments." He added: "There have been certain aspects that, collectively, players and staff, we were not happy with in certain moments, and we have to make sure we correct them. At the moment we’re getting heavily punished for some small errors with the ball that we’re making."
Ho also warned against underestimating Arsenal: "If you try and underestimate a team with Arsenal’s quality you’re in for trouble," and said: "Arsenal aren’t a bad side. Their possession stats are probably the highest in the league, alongside Manchester City. Their goalscoring chances and touches in the opposition box are very, very high. They have world-class players." Last season’s runners-up do have world-class players but it is high time for them to play like a cohesive team.
Arsenal need a derby win on Saturday and a sustained winning run to arrest their slide; with the hierarchy reportedly still backing Slegers, the answer may hinge on Saturday’s result.