Arsenal head coach Renée Slegers insists motivation remains "sky high" as her team look to get their stuttering campaign back on track in Saturday's north London derby at Tottenham.

The Gunners poor start continued with a laboured 1-1 draw against winless Birmingham City at the Emirates Stadium last weekend, which left them down in eighth place with just one win.

Slegers, though, maintains her squad can turn things around as they prepare to make the short trip to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to take on a Spurs side who were thrashed 6-2 at Chelsea last time out.

"That [her position as manager] is not something I think about. It is about where we are as a group and what are we working towards," Slegers, who was initially appointed interim boss two years ago and made permanent in January 2025, said.

"It is absolutely not what we expected and what we wanted eight games into the season. I am in the here and now. We are preparing for the north London derby tomorrow and we have the group together. Everyone is going in the same direction.

"The fuel and the motivation is sky high, because of the fans that will be there for us and that is where my focus is."

WSL leaders Manchester City will look to extend their perfect start to seven straight WSL wins when they travel to rivals Manchester United on Sunday.

Khadija Shaw is set to make her 100th WSL appearance for City, and has seven goals already this season as she targets another Golden Boot.

"We talk quite often about her goalscoring, but there has been a little bit of a shift this year about how much she works defensively and how much she helps the team," City boss Andrée Jeglertz said at a news conference.

"She has a great impact on us. Our job is to win games and with her in the box, it is always a scoring chance."

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Chelsea head to Crystal Palace on Sunday looking to push on from last weekend's impressive win over Spurs and keep in touch with City, who have a two-point lead.

"Right now we are a team who is playing with confidence on the pitch," said Blues boss Sonia Bompastor, who could see summer signing Manaka Matsukubo in contention for a belated debut following her recovery from injury.

"We are creating a lot of opportunities in every game we are playing right now and we are being clinical and ruthless in the box as well, so we need to carry over those positives going to the Sunday game."

Elsewhere, Brighton host West Ham in Saturday's 5.15 p.m. kick-off.

London City Lionesses will aim to continue their promising start away to Liverpool on Sunday. Birmingham host fellow promoted side Charlton and Aston Villa travel to Everton.