Actions speak louder than words — and no more words were needed.
At the final whistle, Renee Slegers squatted down before springing back up and fist-pumping. The Arsenal head coach turned to her staff and hugged them.
It was a moment of relief, a big exhale, the pressure valve on the Dutchwoman had been slightly released. Finally, after seven weeks, Arsenal registered a league win, only their second of the domestic campaign, coming from behind in the north London derby to beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1.
The magnitude of the result was reflected in the players’ reactions.
Instead of forming their customary team huddle at full time, the Arsenal squad lined up, hand in hand and held them aloft to the 4,000-strong travelling fans, their largest travelling support in the WSL in two and a half years.
Arsenal, so used to celebrating wins, wanted to mark the moment even though some may argue their celebrations were disproportionate to the occasion.
Heading into the derby, all eyes were on Arsenal, who sat eighth in the WSL, 12 points adrift of leaders Manchester City. For the first time, they had not won in five league games and had drawn the most league games since the start of last season (nine). Despite winning 10 of their 13 north London derbies, they were far from favourites.
Players returned from the international break reinvigorated, but the boost in energy was sucked out following last weekend’s 1-1 draw with Birmingham. They responded with a higher level of training intensity last week, something Slegers had asked for.
The pressure on Arsenal mounted when Cathinka Tindberg’s towering header put Tottenham 1-0 up inside 13 minutes. Georgia Stanway’s equaliser, a thunderous first-time strike from Alessia Russo’s cutback, embodied the grit Arsenal needed.
Ultimately, Russo’s composure, especially given her patchy start to the season, to convert a second-half penalty was the difference. But it was a penalty that should never have been awarded.
Ella Morris was deemed to be guilty of handball after Tindberg’s clearance struck her arm but new rules for the 2026-2027 season state there is no handball offence if the ball is played by a team-mate.
“The refereeing has got worse than it was last season,” said Tottenham head coach Martin Ho, who wanted to speak to the officials following his post-match press conference.
Arsenal got the job done, but their problems will not vanish overnight.
They failed to take care of the ball on too many occasions even when not under pressure. Loose passes turned positions of control into fragility, landing themselves in trouble and allowing Tottenham to threaten, as was the case which led to Tindberg’s goal and Victoria Pelova unleashing a shot over the bar.
They were at times still vulnerable on the counter-attack, and Slegers is still figuring out her best starting XI as she dropped left-back Ona Battle for Taylor Hinds, who had not made four matchday squads this season, introduced Caitlin Foord for her first start of the season and played Russo in her less natural position as a No 10 while starting Olivia Smith up top.
For all of their resilience against Spurs, they still failed to be ruthless against a team who have shipped 12 goals in their last two games. Despite taking the second most number of shots (135), Arsenal have the worst conversion rate (5.19 per cent), the third-worst shooting accuracy (31.1 per cent) and the fourth-lowest average xG per shot (0.1) in the WSL, according to Opta.
How they build upon this narrow victory is crucial.
Slegers will want to capitalise on the feel-good emotions. On the one hand, a busy schedule with lots of games is an opportunity to build momentum. On the other, the next block shows no signs of abating as they face Benfica in the Champions League on Wednesday followed by Aston Villa, Liverpool and then reigning European champions Barcelona.
“We have to (consolidate upon the win),” said player-of-the-match Foord, starting her first game of the season. “There’s no other real solution. It’s must-win games from now on. We need to leave everything out there, especially how we did today. That has to be week in week out; we need to get points on the board.”
When asked about her future, Slegers has consistently said, as she did so again, post-match: “I’m not the most important in this.”
“When we’ve gone through this, it’s not about me and how I feel in this,” she clarified when prompted. “It’s about Arsenal and how we get Arsenal back to winning ways.”
But arguably the most important person to lead players and staff through this next crucial period is the head coach. The win for Arsenal is a step in the right direction. It remains to be seen if Slegers can turn their season around.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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