Arsenal defeated their North London rivals 3-0 in a game they controlled from start to finish.
They remain in fourth place in the League, one point behind Brighton and four points behind Manchester City, who were defeated at Chelsea 2-0 on Saturday night.
Arsenal scored an early goal through Alessia Russo, and that scuppered the Spurs game plan that was based on defending with a back five and hitting Arsenal on the break. If we remember what happened last season, Spurs stayed in the game because Arsenal were not clinical. Then Arsenal messed up their high press and Spurs scored on the counter.
So there were many phases with Tottenham defending deep followed by Arsenal’s high press. But the key in the game was the early goal and then the second one that settled the game. It was a peach from the in-form Frida Maanum.
It was a curious North London Derby with a toothless Spurs team who were dangerous on the rare occasions where Arsenal would lose the ball in midfield and leave themselves open to a counter attack. They had one big chance from Bethany England that was well saved by Daphne van Domselaar.
Spurs did make a tactical change but it was too little too late as they did it straight after the Arsenal third goal from Stina Blackstenius. They abandoned their back three to go back to their regular back four. But, they had no chance of coming back from 3-0 down with 25 minutes to go.
Renee Slegers carries on her unbeaten run and it is very interesting to see how different is her management style is from Jonas Eidevall’s. The former Arsenal manager rotated regularly earlier in the season as the game were coming thick and fast and he was clearly trying to manage the players load.
Arsenal did play eleven games in 47 days plus the pre-season of course and the leftover from the Paris Olympics in mind too.
Renee Slegers, by contrast, does not rotate much. She has a core team of ten players who have started more than 80% of the six games she has managed so far. Then there are two players who are used in rotation and compete to be the 11th player. And there are three players who gets starts when others are not available. All the other players comes on as substitutes only.
Do those results mean she should have a shot at getting the full-time job? I really don’t know. I think Arsenal should look for a coach who can combine Joe Montemurro’s attacking style and Jonas Eidevall’s defensive organisation and structure. It would mean the team would be able to adapt to any kind of opposition and style.
The team is certainly in good hands right now and there is no need to rush into signing a new manager.
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