Arsenal's Collapse: Why Slegers Faces a Crisis Beyond the Results
A fifth straight league game without a win has turned murmurs about Renée Slegers into open dissent, and the underlying data points to problems that go beyond a dip in form.
Boos rang around the Emirates on Saturday as Arsenal could only draw 1-1 with a Birmingham City side still chasing its first WSL win since promotion. For Renée Slegers, it was the clearest sign yet that patience inside the stadium has run out.
The draw stretched Arsenal's winless run in the league to five matches, the longest such sequence in the club's history, according to The Analyst (Opta). It also marked the second time this season the Gunners have failed to beat a newly promoted side at home, their worst such record against promoted opposition in the competition's history.
What makes the slump sting more is how recently Arsenal were flying. Just three games earlier they had been riding a record 20-game unbeaten run in the league. The collapse since has been just as rapid as the rise that preceded it.
Slegers has started to acknowledge the gravity of the situation publicly. "Everything I want is the best for us, and all the best for these players," she said after the Birmingham draw. "I think if that's not the case anymore, then a change needs to happen. But I have belief in knowing where we can go with this team."
The target has shifted from the title to the top three
Before the international break, Slegers had already played down talk of a title challenge, saying it was "not in the conversation." The more pressing issue now is whether Arsenal can even secure Champions League qualification, sitting nine points behind third-placed London City Lionesses.
That gap reframes everything. A team that spent the autumn being discussed as potential champions is now fighting to stay inside the continental places, and the margin for further slip-ups has all but disappeared.
Leaky at the back, blunt in front
Arsenal's defensive wobbles were laid bare in the Champions League, when vice-captain Leah Williamson handled the ball inside her own box against Paris FC, gifting the French side a late equaliser. It was only the second occasion since last season that Arsenal had failed to win a European match after leading by two or more goals, something they had not done once between 2001-02 and 2024-25, per The Analyst.
Against Birmingham, the pattern repeated itself in open play. Ona Batlle could not get back to cover, and Lotte Wubben-Moy failed to cut out a pass from Neve Herron that sliced the Arsenal defence apart, exposing the Gunners to a fast break for the second match running.
Birmingham managed three shots from such breaks in that game, a tally bettered only once in WSL history, by Aston Villa against Arsenal in April 2025, per The Analyst's figures. None of those three chances came from Birmingham winning the ball in Arsenal's final third, which underlines how much danger the visitors generated simply by attacking from deep once possession turned over.
Across the season as a whole, Arsenal have now conceded six shots from fast breaks, second only to Liverpool's seven, and have shipped two goals from such situations, a joint-worst figure shared with Liverpool and London City.
What the underlying numbers say about the pattern
The volume of shots Arsenal are conceding does not, on its own, explain the alarm. They are allowing just seven shots per game this season, among the lowest such averages recorded in a WSL campaign by the club, per The Analyst. The issue is not how often opponents are getting into shooting positions, but how dangerous those positions are once they arrive.
Expected goals against (xGA), which estimates the likelihood of the shots a team faces resulting in goals, sits at 0.91 per game for Arsenal this season — their second-highest mark on record behind the 0.95 posted in 2024-25. Their expected goals on target against, a measure of shot quality once placement is accounted for, is similarly elevated at 0.94 per game, while the expected goals value per individual shot faced, 0.13, is a club record high.
Arsenal's own carelessness in possession is feeding the problem. They are losing the ball 147.8 times per game this season, their highest rate since 2023-24, when the figure stood at 151.4, The Analyst reports. Fewer shots conceded but higher quality chances, paired with more frequent turnovers, points to a side being caught in transition rather than overrun.
Williamson's form has drawn particular scrutiny given her status as one of Slegers' most trusted defenders, though the underlying picture is more complicated than a simple loss of form, with questions around her performances having grown more pointed since the knee injury she suffered at Euro 2025.
None of this guarantees Arsenal fail to close the nine-point gap on London City, but it does explain why a squad recently unbeaten for 20 league games now looks fragile at both ends. Slegers has acknowledged that change may be required; the data suggests it needs to start with how her team defends in transition.