Arsenal duo Kim Little and Lia Wälti: ‘We hate losing to Chelsea’ | OneFootball

“It’s physical,” Kim Little and Lia Wälti answer almost in unison, both with wry smiles, when asked about the midfield battle when Arsenal play Chelsea in the Women’s Super League.

“It’s a very important part of when each team is successful,” Little says, as the two Arsenal players sit down for a rare joint interview. “When we feel like we’re on top, in the middle, we generally win the game.” Wälti adds: “Most of these games are decided in midfield.”

“It’s intense, but it’s fun,” says Little, the pair bouncing off each other. “It’s going to be a battle. You have to be ready.” Wälti chimes in again: “… ready for second balls, no time on the ball, slide tackles.”

The latest instalment of the rivalry will come on Sunday at Stamford Bridge where the Gunners could move within four points of the league champions with a win. A defeat, however, would leave them 10 points adrift and facing what would seem like mission impossible. There is never a dull game when the two sides meet and the table dictates that this is a must-win game for Arsenal.

“We need to beat Chelsea really, it’s as simple as that,” says Little. Her midfield partner goes further: “Every game in this league is important but the Chelsea one has a different meaning. We hate to lose against Chelsea and it probably feels better to win against Chelsea than against most other teams. We’ve never had 0-0 games, it is always quite open. There have been games where we clearly dominated and there have been others where we’ve been dominated – it is a bit of an unknown game in that sense.”

Chelsea’s dominance has been frustrating for Arsenal, who last won the WSL title in 2019. “Chelsea have won the league for five years in a row now and it’s annoying,” says Wälti. “It’s not something we want to let them do. It seems boring, even though the seasons themselves haven’t been boring and it has sometimes been very tight.”

Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Arsenal at the Emirates in October triggered change in north London, Jonas Eidevall’s resignation coming three days after the game. Since then, under Renée Slegers, who stepped up from assistant coach, the team are unbeaten with 12 wins from 13 games in all competitions and have scored 40 goals. Slegers was given the role permanently on 17 January.

However, not a lot has changed. The foundations were laid by Eidevall, Slegers and the senior assistant head coach, Aaron D’Antino, and two of the three remain. “The biggest transition was just in the personality type, from Jonas to Renée,” says Little, who is only one year younger than Slegers, the former Netherlands international. “She’s a bit more introverted and calm I’d say.

“I’ve not really thought about it much, but it’s nice, in a way, to have a female head coach. We’ve not had that in a long time. That brings a change in dynamics and energy.”

Between them Wälti (midfield anchor) and Little (Arsenal heartbeat) struggle to pin down exactly why there has been such a dramatic turnaround on the pitch. “Everything had been externalised,” says Little. “It felt like it had all got a bit negative, for supporters. I think that impacted all of us and there was maybe a lack of confidence within players.”

Wälti adds: “Football is such a momentum game and we had negative momentum as a team. I don’t know if a coach at that moment, at the start of the season, would have been able to change that. That’s always the hardest thing about being a coach, you’re the one who gets punished if things don’t go right. You can’t just throw out all the players. It was a hit on the team when Jonas left because we had all built that personal connection. It is sad but then you have to move on and the team gained momentum back straight away through the change. It’s hard to explain.”

Eidevall spoke recently about his decision, telling Sports Illustrated that he thought leaving was the “easiest quick fix for the team to be able to perform again” and encouraged other managers in similar positions to do what’s best for the team regardless of the personal impact. “He also spoke very well when he told us he was going, why he made the choice he did, and I think we all respect him for that. It was quite emotional,” says Little.

Switching away from the managerial change Wälti and Little are senior players amid a young crop of midfielders and, at 31 and 34 respectively, are enjoying the balancing act of maintaining their own levels and nurturing the less experienced group. “It’s like having two jobs,” says Wälti. “You focus on yourself and your own development, you obviously want to do everything possible to be a starting player, to still increase your level and to be the best version you can be for the team and at the same time when young players come in you want to help them.”

The Switzerland international says there’s a “quite interesting pattern” among the new generation. “You see big talents on the ball. Where we can help is mostly in the defensive work. A lot of young players come in – Vic [Pelova], Rosa [Kafaji], Kyra [Cooney-Cross], for example – they’re all incredibly good on the ball but it takes time to understand how to play in this league. Once they get it, like Vic, after around half a year, then it’s so much fun to see, to watch that whole development of somebody so hungry to learn. We want to push to be the first choice, but at the same time it’s nice to see players making the next steps.”

The key to their own longevity? “It’s consistency which makes you a really good player,” says Wälti, who drops in that she and Little are “future coaches”. “The biggest talents sometimes don’t make it because it’s about how good you can be every day in every game.”

Little, a former Scotland international, adds: “We’ve been at this level so long because we’re competitive, we want to be on the pitch and be starting and we always have that in us. We’re also similar in that we’re consistent, we lead by example and our training levels don’t really drop, then that is reflected in our games. We’ve played a lot because coaches have trust in us because of that.

“Then it’s about being quite holistic about yourself as a midfielder. I started as quite an attacking midfielder but my role has really changed, particularly when with the national team because we played a bit more defensively. So my game has just become more and more rounded.”

What of the pair’s seemingly instinctive connection on the pitch? “No connection is unbeatable,” says Wälti. “We have good and bad days, but at the same time you just trust each other.”

Header image: [Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian]