Andy Lamb spoke to Arsenal defender, Alex Scott, ahead of the Gunners’ FA WSL season opener tonight at Notts County FC.
AL : You’ll be looking to improve on last season’s fourth place.
AS : Yes, definitely playing for Arsenal for the number of years I have is all about winning trophies so last year was a hard season for us.
I think we were in a transition phase and lost the manager early on during the season but we still went on to win the FA Cup. Most other teams would’ve taken that but for Arsenal standards we know we need to be pushing on again this year.
AL : How do you think you’ll do against Chelsea in the FA Cup?
AS : I think Chelsea will be an interesting game, when we played them last year in the quarter-finals it went to extra-time and Kelly [Smith] popped up with a winning goal as she always does!.
It’s always a tough game against Chelsea and they also have some ex-Arsenal players as part of the team, as well as Emma Hayes who was our Assistant Manager at Arsenal too. There’s the local rivalry there but it’s going to be an interesting game.
AL : It will be Pedro’s first full season in charge – what can we expect this season?
AS : Pedro has coached in America, which I saw straight away in his training he knows the standards, the professional standards, Arsenal needs to be back at.
I think other teams overtook us as they were pouring money in to make their teams professional and even though we were always up there, I think we were stuck at a level and not progressing.
Pedro has come in and realised we need to take it up another notch, it’s not OK just to be representing the name of Arsenal, we do need to be winning silverware. I think It’s going to be an exciting season under him.
AL : League newcomers Sunderland – how do think they will do this season?
AS : Going off the first game, which I watched, I was really impressed with them. When Vic Ackers was the manager of Arsenal we only trained twice a week and weren’t professional.
He installed a professional thinking in us that we were representing Arsenal in the way we conduct ourselves and through the way we trained and I see that in this Sunderland team.
So even though they’ve not been able to attract the star names like Manchester City have, they are a professional outfit in all senses of the word and I think they aren’t just going to survive in this league but they will do well.
AL : We are going into Season 5 of FAWSL, how have you seen it strengthen personally?
AS : I feel like I say it every season but this season will be the most competitive yet. When you look around all the teams, I think teams are on a similar level, every team has its star players, whereas in the past maybe two or three did.
It’s not just the likes of us who attract England Internationals – it’s the likes of Notts County and Sunderland that are signing these kinds of players, so things like this can only making the whole league stronger.
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