Too nice: do Arsenal lack the grit and tenacity to end WSL title drought?

Arsenal, 10 points adrift of the Women’s Super League leaders, are poised to undertake a “big review” of their season during this international break to try to determine where things have gone so horribly wrong – again – in the early stages. After their 4-2 loss at Manchester City on Sunday, it felt as if the agenda needs to include an unusual but potentially critical question: is this team nasty enough to win a WSL title?

The technical ability throughout the world-class squad Arsenal have assembled could hardly be higher but the levels of grit, resilience and tenacity need examining in a group that appears unable to match Chelsea and Manchester City when it comes to the mental aspects of a title race. Arsenal last won the WSL in 2019.

Related: WSL talking points: heat cranks up on Arsenal but Putellas and Diani shine

When speaking to sources close to the Arsenal players, it is common to hear of the squad being like a “family”, very supportive of each other and full of “great people”. Those admirable traits, and a general sense the club is full of nice characters, often come across when watching games or during player interviews. Arsenal have built a team of good eggs; polite, courteous and professional individuals who people would be glad to call friends. In the vast majority of scenarios in life this is, quite obviously, a good thing. But are they too nice to beat City?

It is quite hard to imagine many of the Arsenal squad raising their voices in anger. It is equally hard to recall the last time anybody at the club engaged in so-called “housery”; perhaps not since Katie McCabe’s hair pull against Chelsea in last season’s Champions League quarter-final. The irony is that McCabe is one of the senior, influential players who left this summer – in her case to join Chelsea – and McCabe, regardless of what fans might think of her, is someone Arsenal could rely on to roll up her sleeves and get stuck in, to raise her game in a hostile atmosphere and be combative.

Last term, no Arsenal players – not even McCabe – registered in Stats Perform’s list of the top 20 WSL players for percentage of duels won. Only one Arsenal player has been shown a red card in a WSL game since 2021-22. Admirable discipline, yes, but are they lacking that fire in the belly?

This season, the team appear to be without a dogged, refuse-to-lose type of character in the mould of Lucy Bronze, whose never-say-die attitude has frequently come to England’s aid in crucial moments at major tournaments; or the gritty battling spirit of Erin Cuthbert, who has helped Chelsea lift seven league titles; or – to take an Arsenal example – a leader such as Gabriel Magalhães, a rock for others to lean on during tough games.

It is possible to be successful without a Roy Keane in your squad and Arsenal do have Leah Williamson, who has led England to two European titles, so it would be wrong to imply there is no leadership in this group. Leaders can step up in different ways but recently Renée Slegers, when praising her senior players’ reactions to their disappointing draw in Paris, mentioned there had been “lots of hugs” and praised how supportive everybody had been for each other. That sounds like the sort of unified workplace culture millions would envy, but to win titles sometimes you need to fall out, yell, be angry and demand higher standards.

On Friday I asked Slegers whether Arsenal had enough of a nasty edge to win the league, and she replied defiantly: “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.”

That was not evident on Sunday in the little – but important – moments, such as shortly after Arsenal had twice taken a lead they would surrender. City seemed unfazed and carried the resolve of a team who had no doubt they would win.

Part of the way that belief has been instilled into the defending champions was evidenced in a clip, released by Sky Sports, of Andrée Jeglertz’s pre-match team talk, which he concluded with the words: “The most important thing: we are Manchester City, we are playing at home and we are winning this game.” The matter-of-fact, defiant instruction was not easy to imagine hearing in this Arsenal dressing room with any real conviction right now, not from the players and not from Slegers, who has many excellent qualities as coach, and is, by all accounts, an intelligent, detail-oriented coach of whom the players are very fond.

In decades to come, all the nice characteristics this Arsenal squad demonstrate will no doubt stand them in good stead in the real world, with their friendships, but the cliche “nice guys finish last” is starting to feel increasingly appropriate for this amiable side.