Slegers and misfiring Arsenal badly need a result in WSL north London derby

It says much about Arsenal’s predicament that the team who have conceded 12 goals in two games are not the side whose head coach is under most pressure before a north London derby. Tottenham, four points above their neighbours before Saturday’s meeting, may have been humbled in consecutive Women’s Super League matches but all eyes are on Renée Slegers.

Arsenal are winless in five WSL matches for the first time, and the most decorated club in English women’s football desperately need a turning point. Their failure to beat Birmingham at home last Saturday, dropping points against a promoted side for the second time this season, again demonstrated the team’s inability to convert possession into goals. They increasingly look like a team stuck in Groundhog Day.

Related: WSL talking points: pressure mounts on Slegers as Hemp closes on record

The Arsenal hierarchy are understood to remain behind Slegers, but for how long? The answer may hinge on Saturday lunchtime’s result. However much goodwill the Dutchwoman gained for guiding Arsenal to Champions League glory in May 2025, the simple truth is, it is unacceptable for a club with one of the biggest budgets in the world to be 12 points behind the leaders after six games.

That gap is why the draw with Birmingham not only pretty much extinguished Arsenal’s title hopes but also burned a hole in their secondary domestic objective – Champions League qualification. The unthinkable prospect of failure appears a genuine possibility: they are nine points adrift of third-placed London City. Arsenal need a derby win on Saturday but also a winning run to reverse the slide, and there is little evidence to suggest such a turnaround is close.

Arsenal have the worst shot conversion rate in the league (4.1%) and, according to Stats Perform, the third-worst shooting accuracy (30.6%) and third-lowest average xG per shot (0.09) despite averaging over 60% possession. Slegers’s persistence in deploying Alessia Russo – widely regarded as one of Europe’s best No 9s – in the No 10 role has baffled supporters and commentators alike. Russo has scored more WSL goals against Tottenham (eight) than any other player so Saturday’s game may be the perfect moment for that to change.

Arsenal have struggled against low blocks for a number of seasons, though, so not all fault lies at Slegers’s door. Nonetheless, the 37-year-old was substantially backed in the summer, with Arsenal enjoying perhaps their strongest transfer window in recent memory. So far though they have looked confounded tactically, bruised mentally and lacking the self-belief to grab a game by the scruff of its neck.

Asked if she was surprised to still be in her job, Slegers said: “That’s not something I think about. It’s about, ‘where are we as a group?’ and ‘what are we working towards?’ It’s absolutely not what we expected [our recent results] or what we wanted. But I’m in the here and now, and we are preparing for the north London derby. We have the group together. Everyone is going in the same direction and the fuel and motivation is sky high, because of the fans that will be there for us. That’s where my focus will be.”

Asked how imperative it is that Arsenal climb back up into a Champions League place this season, Slegers added: “Of course that’s in the back of our heads, but what we need right now is to get back to winning ways. We can only do that with the next game in front of us so that’s why the next game in front of us is the most important right now.”

Slegers has maintained after last weekend’s draw that Arsenal will recover when they fix some “details and margins”. Perhaps taking on a Tottenham side who have become only the second team in history to concede six or more goals in consecutive WSL games is the perfect opportunity.

“It is a little bit of game intelligence and smartness in moments,” said the Spurs head coach, Martin Ho, insisting he is not worried about his team’s defending in the long-term. “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.”

The Englishman also only had praise for Arsenal’s qualities when speaking on Friday morning. “If you try and underestimate a team with Arsenal’s quality you’re in for trouble,” he said. Asked about Arsenal’s poor run, Ho added: “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.