“I think we’re a good footballing team, we always knew that. Where the emphasis has been lately has been very small things, but doing them consistently well.”

Arsenal Women’s 10-game winning run is their best spell of victories in almost a decade. They haven’t hit form at the perfect moment exactly, with the WSL title already out of reach and likely heading to Manchester City. But there are worse times.

That double-digit form has only included four WSL games but has seen the Gunners win the inaugural Women’s Champions Cup, progress through the Champions League play-offs and build up a 3-1 lead against Chelsea in the quarter-finals earlier this week.

Sceptics of footballing metrics may be pleased to know there are few differences in the underlying numbers from Arsenal’s early-season form to suggest such a run of results. The game hasn’t changed, per se, more the management.

It’s intentional, of course. Arsenal’s squad is as strong as it has ever been, perhaps stronger. Head coach Renee Slegers’ main task has been building a resilience which has not always been a key factor in this club’s armoury.

“It’s not always the visible things – but that’s where our emphasis has been,” she tells Sky Sports. “But we know there’s actions and behaviours we’re doing which are contributing.

Saturday 28th March 5:00pm


Kick off 5:30pm

“If you look at the group, where they’re at, together with the staff, collectively we have created a togetherness and a strong mentality. A strong resilience in the team.

“When you have to go through harder times, you have to find solutions to get everyone going in the same direction. When you have momentum, it’s about staying there – it’s the same thing but different.

“The game against Chelsea was one of momentum shifts, it ebbed and flowed, but looking at the players and their composure on the pitch, their body language and also speaking to them afterwards – they looked in control.”

Control is what will be needed for Saturday’s North London derby. The old cliché that form goes out of the window for such games has an element of truth with the added emotion of the fixture, especially with more than 45,000 fans expected to descend on the Emirates Stadium for the 5.30pm kick-off, live on Sky Sports Football.

Slegers has shown she is willing to make decisions to ensure that those emotions to not become an issue. In Tuesday’s win over Chelsea, another London derby, she hooked Laia Codina at half-time with the defender on a yellow card and will not hesitate to do the same if the intensity of the Tottenham match spills over for any of her players.

“Laia did really well for us in the first half, but I’m a coach who’s not afraid to make changes with players on yellow cards,” Slegers adds.

“Tuesday was a very heated game at the Emirates, and it will be similar. The team channeled their passion into the game through intensity, passion and belief. They stayed calm and task-focused. We want to bring the same to the Tottenham game.”

It is games like this where the experience of 35-year-old skipper Kim Little becomes extra important. The Scottish midfielder is the ultimate professional and still posts the best pass completion and tackling numbers of anyone in her position across the WSL despite coming towards the end of her 20th season in professional football.

Against Tottenham, it will be as much her leadership as those technical abilities which Slegers will lean upon as the Gunners attempt to avoid the frustration of a one-sided 0-0 draw in the away fixture earlier in the season. Little wonder the club has committed her to a one-year extension to her contract in the build-up to the game.

“She’s a figure of stability – a rock, she’s so consistent and she’s so composed,” Slegers says of her captain. “She’s a role model for all the right things.

“Kim’s done this for so long for Arsenal, too. I always respect loyalty and it’s amazing what she’s still bringing to the team and to the club. You can’t measure it.”

Watch Arsenal vs Tottenham live on Sky Sports Football from 5pm, kick-off 5.30pm