Williamson relishing England duty after Arsenal´s tough start to season

Leah Williamson admitted she is happy to be back with the national team having endured a “different” start to the season with Arsenal.

The Gunners have made a poor start to 2024-25, and are currently without a full-time manager after Jonas Eidevall left his position last week.

He left Arsenal when they were sixth in the Women’s Super League table, having won just one of their first four matches in the competition.

In his final week, they were beaten 5-2 by Bayern Munich in the Champions League before suffering a 2-1 loss to reigning champions Chelsea in the league.

Interim boss Renee Slegers has since won both of her games in charge to somewhat steady the ship, and it is rumoured that New York City FC’s head coach Nick Cushing is currently the favourite to take the full-time job.

For now, Williamson is enjoying the change of environment.

“It’s been a different start to the season. We’ve obviously been at our clubs for a long time,” Williamson said.

“Normally we’d have an international window before this. So, it’s been different in that sense of being there for so long and being in one place. We’re not used to that.

“We have a new job. A new focus and a completely different tournament to play.”

Always looking forward pic.twitter.com/Z70siBeUUl

— Lionesses (@Lionesses) October 24, 2024

“I think results tell a story, but I think the work that I’ve seen going on, especially from my club, I can only speak for that, I think you can see again that the level of the whole world of football has gone up, and everyone’s enjoying that challenge, and things change every year.

“But this is a Euros year now and everyone will have a plan for the weekend and a plan for the next year. You’ll see that sort of iron out over the next couple of months.

“Our job is to win games and that hasn’t happened so smoothly. Like I said, results tell a story.

“Performance is another thing that you can actually change and affect on a day-to-day basis. And to be honest, I’m happy to be here in a different environment.

“I think sometimes that comes at the right time and, since I’ve been here, I’ve had no contact with the club.”

England face Germany in the first of two international friendlies, a replay of the Euro 2022 final, at Wembley on Friday, before facing South Africa on Tuesday.