Arsenal are 10 points adrift of the Women's Super League leaders after a 4-2 defeat at Manchester City on Sunday, and the club is poised to undertake a "big review" of their season during the international break. The review aims to determine where things have gone wrong in the early stages, with a potentially critical question emerging: is this team nasty enough to win a WSL title?
Technical ability vs mental toughness
The technical ability throughout Arsenal's world-class squad could hardly be higher, but levels of grit, resilience and tenacity need examining in a group that appear unable to match Chelsea and Manchester City in the mental aspects of a title race. Arsenal last won the WSL in 2019.
Sources close to the Arsenal players often describe the squad as being like a "family", very supportive of each other and full of "great people". These traits, and a sense the club is full of nice characters, often come across during games and player interviews. Arsenal have built a team of good eggs; polite, courteous and professional individuals. But the question remains: are they too nice to beat City?
Lack of 'housery' and combative spirit
It is hard to imagine many of the Arsenal squad raising their voices in anger, and it is equally hard to recall the last time anybody at the club engaged in so-called "housery"; perhaps not since Katie McCabe's hair pull against Chelsea in last season's Champions League quarter-final. McCabe, one of the senior influential players who left this summer to join Chelsea, was someone Arsenal could rely on to roll up her sleeves, raise her game in a hostile atmosphere and be combative.
Last term, no Arsenal players registered in Stats Perform's list of the top 20 WSL players for percentage of duels won. Only one Arsenal player has been shown a red card in a WSL game since 2021-22. Admirable discipline, yes, but are they lacking that fire in the belly?
Leadership and the 'Arsenal way'
This season, the team appear to be without a dogged, refuse-to-lose character in the mould of Lucy Bronze, whose never-say-die attitude has frequently come to England's aid at major tournaments; or the gritty battling spirit of Erin Cuthbert, who has helped Chelsea lift seven league titles; or a leader such as Gabriel Magalhães, a rock for others to lean on during tough games.
It is possible to be successful without a Roy Keane in your squad, and Arsenal do have Leah Williamson, who has led England to two European titles, so it would be wrong to imply there is no leadership. Leaders can step up in different ways, but recently Renée Slegers, when praising her senior players' reactions to their disappointing draw in Paris, mentioned there had been "lots of hugs" and praised how supportive everybody had been. That sounds like a unified workplace culture millions would envy, but to win titles sometimes you need to fall out, yell, be angry and demand higher standards.
On Friday, Slegers was asked whether Arsenal had enough of a nasty edge to win the league, and she replied defiantly: "I think so, and nastiness or that grittiness, that can express itself in different ways, and I think we have certain ways in which we express that and [in] which we can do that. But of course, with our performances where we haven't been at our best, you maybe don't see those moments as much which we can bring, but we're convinced that we can bring that to games as well, in our way, the Arsenal way, because it's definitely there."
That was not evident on Sunday in the little – but important – moments, such as shortly after Arsenal had twice taken a lead they would surrender. City seemed unfazed and carried the resolve of a team who had no doubt they would win. Part of that belief was instilled in the defending champions in a clip released by Sky Sports of Andrée Jeglertz's pre-match team talk, which he concluded with the words: "The most important thing: we are Manchester City, we are playing at home and we are winning this game." The matter-of-fact, defiant instruction was not easy to imagine hearing in this Arsenal dressing room with any real conviction right now.
In decades to come, all the nice characteristics this Arsenal squad demonstrate will no doubt stand them in good stead in the real world, with their friendships, but the cliche "nice guys finish last" is starting to feel increasingly appropriate for this amiable side.
