\n<\/p>\n
Ren\u00e9e Slegers was back in front of the media for her pre-Lyon press conference at the Groupama Stadium on Friday.<\/p>\n
Here’s everything she had to say on the following subjects…<\/p>\n
on team news: <\/strong> on our squad having played a lot of games together: <\/strong> on using the experience of winning last season without being complacent: <\/strong> on OL Lyonnes having key players returning: <\/strong> on Leah signing a new contract: <\/strong> on enjoying it this season:<\/strong> on confidence among the squad:<\/strong> on the boost of contracts being signed:<\/strong> on if she\u2019s able to unplug and switch off:<\/strong> Copyright 2026 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.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ren\u00e9e Slegers was back in front of the media for her pre-Lyon press conference at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The same squad is available, including Chloe Kelly, she\u2019s coming back into action.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think it\u2019s important only in those moments, I think the diversity that we have in the group is really important and we\u2019ve played younger players at different stages, we know we can do it, they\u2019re ready, but we also know we need the experience and the leadership. But that\u2019s not only in those moments on the pitch, that\u2019s every day, what we do every day, and that makes us ready for the game. I wasn\u2019t aware of the fact (that nine of our starting XI in the first leg were at least 27) but interesting fact.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s very simple, I think you can\u2019t compare the two occasions. Everything is different this year, the scenario is different as well, last time we were 2-1 down, now we\u2019re 2-1 up, so everything is different. We have to earn the right again from the very start, so I don\u2019t compare the two occasions. Yes we\u2019ve been to the city, yes I recognise this hall and the pitch, that will be there, but we have to start all over again tomorrow.<\/p>\n
I think if you look at it in teams, it\u2019s two really strong squads going against each other, so you\u2019ll have players starting and you\u2019ll have players finishing, and we\u2019ll see how both teams are going to manage that tomorrow. But of course, Melchie (Dumornay) and Selma (Bacha) are very strong players for them.<\/p>\n
Yeah, of course I’m very happy. I think Leah is a world class player, so intelligent, love working with Leah and I think we collaborate really well, she\u2019s inspiring, I love listening and learning from the players as well, and Leah is definitely one of them, so really happy we\u2019re going to continue to work together.<\/p>\n
I enjoyed it last season as well! Well I enjoy my role, I understand I’m very privileged to be part of Arsenal, working with these players for this club with these values and competing with the best team so I enjoyed last year. Even though of course you don’t have joy and pleasures constantly, you have to work really hard but I try to enjoy the moment as much as possible, enjoy the work, enjoy all the moments that we go through. Last year was great, this year has brought a lot to us as well. There’s been fantastic times and there’s always times that are more challenging but look at where we are now and I’ve learned to live in the moment and enjoy the moment as much as possible so I’m doing that at the moment sitting here, and I’ll do that tomorrow when the game has been played.<\/p>\n
Well the squad is great at the moment but I think one of our big strengths is that we know who we are, we know our strengths, we know what we’re about, how we want to do things and I think that’s part of building belief and confidence. Another big strength of ours is the humility of how we do things and we stay grounded through all the scenarios and respect what we have, who we are, we respect ourselves, we respect the opponents, the competitions we compete in, so I think that’s our big strength and the group is in a good place. We know the challenge that’s ahead of us tomorrow, we play against a very strong team, we want to bring our best game as well tomorrow and we look forward to it.<\/p>\n
Yes it’s very good for players I think, this is the business side, it’s short contracts, there’s no one on a permanent contract and that’s part of it so you have to deal with that in a certain way. But of course it’s good for both club and player to know what the future looks like and where we’re committing together so yes, really happy with all the extensions so far so we’re in the here and now but also really good for the future to have that commitment.<\/p>\n
Yes I try to find quiet, stillness, it’s intense, it’s a lot of people and I try to manage my days, I come home and there’s a family so I try to manage my days so that I have a moment of peace and quiet and stillness, so that’s been my commitment for these last two months and it’s been working really well so far, I’m enjoying it so I would say that’s my main strategy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n