Renée: “What we need is laser focus”

Manchester City Women have had an impressive start to the 2026/27 season, but Renée Slegers and her coaching staff are always on the lookout for weaknesses we can exploit.

That’s exactly what we’ll be looking to do in our first ever trip to Etihad Stadium this weekend for Sunday’s 4.30pm kick-off in the Women’s Super League.

In Friday’s pre-match press conference, our head coach spoke about our ambition to become the first team to beat City in the league this season.

“We always see opportunities, of course, but at the same time, I was really impressed with Real Madrid yesterday,” she said. “They made it very hard for Manchester City, especially in the first half.

“But of course, they’re a really strong team with a lot of individual quality, and what they’ve shown is that late in games, they always stay in it and come back. We have to be super-focused and see the opportunity on Sunday.”

Asked about the importance of the game in relation to the WSL title race, Renée continued: “It's an important one, of course. It's hugely important. We go for the three points. That's all we can do in our preparation now, and execution on the match day, and it's an important one.

“But then again, it’s October now, it's October. It's still early season, and we've had a long block with challenging games. This is one of them, we knew that beforehand, and if we want to achieve what we want to this season, then it's an important game. It was regardless.”

One reporter in Renée’s presser quizzed her on the balancing act between players being nice and nasty, and if we have enough of an edge to be winners.

“I think so, and nastiness or grittiness can express itself in different ways, which we can do,” she replied. “Of course, with our performances where we haven’t been at our best, you maybe don’t see those moments as much that we can bring.

“But we’re convinced we can bring that to games as well in the Arsenal way, because it’s definitely there, but it comes out and expresses itself in different ways, against different teams, with different personalities. It’s definitely there.”

Everyone is well aware that it’s been a big week for news surrounding Man City, with the announcement that the club has been found guilty of major breaches to Premier League financial regulations.

Renée was asked if that news could impact the atmosphere at Etihad Stadium this weekend, and if we have to be wary of City adopting a siege mentality.

“I think in general, of course this is our first day back after Paris, we had the day off yesterday, we’re going to talk about what we can expect - the game plan,” she said. “What we need from the team right now is laser focus, knowing the direction we want to go, and then everything outside of it is not important at the moment. We need to stay focused.

“How they have responded is outside of our control, and we have to focus purely on ourselves at the moment. We are very busy, like I said, laser focused, business, with a plan together, prep and then we want to go out there on Sunday.”