Arsenal’s all too familiar slump is a big problem for Renée Slegers

The sophomore slump is real. After a virtuoso first year from Renée Slegers, the pressure was on to follow it up with something equally brilliant. Expectations were raised, the spotlight was focused. On the sidelines at Arsenal, Slegers is realising why they call it the tricky second album.

Arsenal went into their opening Champions League game against Lyon having dropped seven points in their last three league games. Fans are doing the complicated mental gymnastics to explain why they could still win the title, despite that being more points than Chelsea dropped all last season. They have become familiar with these kind of contortions.

The Champions League was supposed to be an opportunity to recapture the good feeling from last season’s shock success in the competition. Instead a 2-1 loss only increases the scrutiny as Arsenal’s run without a win extends to four games. The last time they went this long without a victory was at the end of 2021.

Arsenal had overcome Lyon in the semi-finals last year, but they are a different prospect now under the tutelage of former Barcelona manager Jonatan Giráldez, who Slegers previously spent a couple of days observing on a “study visit”. For an idea of the depth Lyon boast, in the 76th minute they brought on the all-time UWCL top scorer Ada Hegerberg alongside one of the world’s most highly rated young midfielders, Lily Yohannes.

For all of Lyon’s brilliance though, this was a loss of Arsenal’s own making. They had taken the lead thanks to Beth Mead dancing through five Lyon players and setting up Alessia Russo. But they gifted two goals to a hungry Lyon press within 15 minutes.

First goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar kindly passed the ball out to Melchie Dumornay, who did have to take two bites of the cherry before scoring. Five minutes later it was Mariona’s careless ball ricocheting off Lindsay Heaps that forced Katie Reid to head the ball weakly to Dumornay’s feet. She curled it into the back of the net.

Arsenal were lucky that the scoreline did not get messier than that given the chances that Lyon continued to create. Meanwhile, Arsenal looked relatively toothless, restricted to low quality chances. As was the case in their loss to Manchester City at the weekend, they had portions of territory but their opposition was able to carve them open. Across both matches they gave up 10 big chances.

This is not the first time that Arsenal have found themselves in a mysterious slump. In fact, most seasons involve some form of inquest into the exact reasons that Arsenal have failed to live up to expectations. With this match being played back at Meadow Park, which has become an increasingly sporadic home for Arsenal, it was hard to recall which season exactly we were in so familiar were the problems.

For a start, the poor results come in clumps. Three games here, three games there spelled the end for Arsenal’s previous manager Jonas Eidevall. Slegers might suggest that two draws and two losses against Manchester United, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Lyon is hardly atrocious but as was the case with her predecessor, Arsenal’s expectations are and should be higher. Chelsea have not gone four games without a win since 2019 and this is the standard that Arsenal need to compete with domestically.

As a group, they appear to struggle to arrest bad form. “Momentum is really big in football from a psychology perspective but also a football and tactical perspective,” said Slegers after the loss to City.

“It does something to a group,” she added following the Lyon result. “The important thing is that we have a strong foundation and grow from a cultural perspective and from a football perspective. We need to keep on believing in that philosophy because it gave us a lot of things last year and when it starts clicking, then we know how good we are.”

Slegers undoubtedly will have significant buy-in and support given what she was able to achieve last season when she took a team who were in a similar situation in October to the Champions League title. Both her and the players will know that means this start to the year is not the be all and end all. Arsenal have also shown considerable leeway in the past, most demonstrably when Eidevall actually ended up resigning himself because he felt his position was untenable as opposed to being sacked by the club. Yet Slegers’ contract only runs to the end of this season. A Champions League trophy is a beautiful way of covering up a crack in the wall but not if it keeps growing.

The repetitive nature of Arsenal’s situation shows any problems extend far beyond their manager. The squad building still leaves a lot to be desired. Despite splashing the cash on Olivia Smith this summer, they did not upgrade a single other position on the pitch. In the transfer market, they tend to come off as reactive rather than proactive, an impression not helped by their struggles to integrate and develop younger players.

But there are areas which are directly related to Slegers, including a struggle defending transitions and a disjointed attack where four different players have been used as a No 10 over the past six games. If the finger-pointing is to begin, Slegers will surely be relieved that Arsenal’s director of women’s football, Clare Wheatley, has long been an object of ire from fans in North London, but she is not blameless.

As the final whistle blew in Borehamwood, Katie McCabe kicked the ball into the night sky in frustration. She has been here before.

Photograph by Alex Burstow/Arsenal FC via Getty Images