How Renee Slegers turned Arsenal’s floundering season around to lead the Gunners to an unprecedented Women's Champions League final

One of the first things that was important for Slegers when she became the interim coach back in October was reigniting the confidence in a team that was becoming devoid of it. Poor league form and that thumping in Munich had left the players lacking a lot of self-belief, and the brilliant job the Dutchwoman did in addressing this was evident in how many players immediately pointed to the increase in confidence when asked where Slegers had made an impact since taking the reins from Eidevall.

“She gives us confidence,” Beth Mead said, quite simply, in November. “We are playing good football and as individuals and as a collective we are happy we have got Renee and she deserves the credit for making us feel good and getting the performances on the pitch. It has been a breath of fresh air and it has been very good so far.”

It’s a message Emily Fox continued to share two months later in an interview with ESPN. “It was a very smooth transition in that sense and she hasn't stopped,” she said. "I think Renee is just a steadying force and with the team-mates that we have and the girls that we have, I think we're all just very confident and know how important she is for us."

Slegers’ ability to instil that belief in the team was aided by the fact she knew the group well from her time as Eidevall’s assistant. The players had already got to know her, especially given she was in charge of a lot of individual player development, and that also helped the transition between coaches become an “easy” one, in Mead’s words.

She had the trust of the players and was well-versed in what their strengths and weaknesses were, as well as how to get the best out of them. Slegers wasn’t coming in and having to learn everything from scratch.

Nor was Slegers the typical sort of interim manager. She wasn’t an assistant with limited head coaching experience. Indeed, prior to her move to Arsenal, she succeeded Eidevall as the manager of Rosengard, the 14-time Swedish champions. It was a role she held for two-and-a-half seasons, delivering two league titles and a Swedish Cup before reuniting with Eidevall in north London in April 2023.

As such, Arsenal had the luxury of being patient, as they knew Slegers could handle the job for a little longer than some others might be able to. It was with that opportunity that she could then show why she deserved the role on a full-time basis. Having stabilised things, injected confidence in the team and got a winning run going, she could then start to slowly make her mark.

There are not too many obvious changes that Slegers has made since taking charge of the Gunners. Most are subtle, with there no need to dismantle Eidevall’s work, but instead progress it with some fine-tuning. Her most glaring change, though, has been to regularly deploy Steph Catley at centre-back in a manner that not only brings a left-foot into the heart of defence, but that also frees up Katie McCabe to essentially play as a left winger, rather than a left-back.

It has positively changed Arsenal’s build-up play and how they attack, while also ensuring the cover is there behind McCabe to allow her to push on without fear of being caught out. When Mariona Caldentey has played on the left wing, as has been the case for large parts of the season, McCabe’s direct and wide style has also allowed the Spaniard to cut inside and create from a central position, which is where she is most dangerous.

Another major difference between Slegers and Eidevall has been the consistency of team selection, which has no doubt helped create the momentum that has carried Arsenal to such a turnaround. Indeed, Catley has credited that as one of the reasons for their defensive improvements. Slegers doesn’t often make changes and that has allowed relationships to blossom and players to understand how to play to their team-mates’ strengths, resulting in the consistently brilliant performances and results that have made her tenure so far such a success.

What balances out Slegers’ lack of changes from one starting XI to the next, then, is her tendency to make early substitutions. Almost 30 percent of her subs since taking the reins in north London have come before the hour, with only seven games of her 32 to date not seeing her make a personnel change before the 63rd minute.

It means those on the bench have ample time to make a real impact, be that by scoring goals, assisting them, keeping clean sheets or just generally improving the play on the pitch with their contributions. It has also kept the team fresh despite her not rotating the actual XI much, granting greater chunks of rest to starters, and allowed those not in the line up to really stake a claim to start.

Slegers hasn’t just tweaked things on the pitch, either, to deliver the success she has. She has started to lean into her experiences as a player to shape her coaching style more, giving those in the team more responsibility and chance to problem solve on their own accord.

“The players spoke a lot about accountability and I think it is easy to bring it in short moments, but it is important now to do it for a long time and the next step is going to be doing that,” she said in November. Team meetings started to feature more input from the players when it came to tactics and approaches to certain games, for example, while the leadership group of Kim Little, Leah Williamson, Lia Walti and McCabe has been used a lot as part of her management.

“I do like when you exchange opinions with players and coaches because the feeling on the pitch is sometimes completely different than the feeling off the pitch, when you watch the game,” Walti told the Arsenal Women Arsecast podcast in March. “I do really like that way of working together and I think, seeing myself as a coach in the future, that's also something I probably would take with me.”

Further adding her own flair to the squad was a strong January window, from which Chloe Kelly was the star recruit. The England international has made a hugely positive impact at the club she came through as a young girl and has bolstered the depth in attack in a way that allows Slegers to freshen her team up with subs and minor line-up tweaks more often.

But also notable was the arrival of Jenna Nighswonger, and the corresponding departure of Laura Wienroither. This again signalled the subtle changes between Eidevall and Slegers, in the different types of full-backs they want for their systems. Wienroither didn’t fit Slegers’ bill, but Nighswonger does and will hope to feature prominently as this era at Arsenal progresses.

The Dutch coach, meanwhile, will hope this is the first of many transfer windows she gets to oversee as she starts to mould this already capable squad into one that suits her demands as perfectly as possible.

It has all steadily led Arsenal to a first Champions League final since 2007, when this competition was known as the UEFA Women’s Cup. Back then, the Gunners were the underdogs, facing an Umea side that Karen Carney, a member of the team back then, has previously referred to as “the Galacticos of women's football”. But, thanks to an Alex Scott goal, they came out on top over two legs to be the first – and still only – English women’s club side to be crowned European champions.

In Lisbon on Saturday, their opponents will be the favourites again. Barcelona have now made six of the last seven finals in this competition, coming out on top on three occasions - including twice in the last two seasons. With two double Ballon d’Or winners, in Alexia Putellas and Aitana Bonmati, plus a striker in Ewa Pajor who has scored more than 40 goals this term, they are the very best team in Europe – if not the world.

It will not be easy, but nothing about Arsenal’s road to this point has been. In the quarter-finals, they had to overturn a 2-0 deficit from the first leg to beat Real Madrid 3-2 on aggregate. In the next round, they were beaten 2-1 at home by eight-time winners Lyon, only to go to France and record a remarkable 4-1 victory to make the final. Dig deep and find those incredible levels once more this weekend, and Slegers’ Gunners could complete this already amazing turnaround with a quite stunning triumph.