This summer, Slegers has strengthened her hand with seven new players, including full-back Ona Batlle, Caldentey’s compatriot, and England dynamo Georgia Stanway to stiffen midfield.

Caldentey says Arsenal came up short last season through inconsistency and hopes the signings will help overcome that hurdle.

“We have shown amazing moments and amazing games and others where we haven’t been good enough,” she said. “That happened too many times last year. It was painful.

“We have added a lot of quality and that will help us.”

With players such as two-time Ballon d’Or winner and fellow Spaniard Alexia Putellas arriving in the WSL, down the road at London City Lionesses, Caldentey accepts the league is getting tougher.

“It is a really attractive league,” she said. “What you see and experience here, you don’t get in other places. There are never any easy games.

“You want to play against the best – that’s the challenge as a player and the quality here is really high.”

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And any observer would count Caldentey as among the very best.

In two seasons at Emirates Stadium, she has won WSL Player of the Season, come second in the 2024-25 Ballon d’Or and made the WSL Team of the Year both times.

During that period, her role has evolved from forward to midfielder and yet, despite that, only Alessia Russo has scored and assisted more for Arsenal.

“You have to adapt to what the team needs,” she said. “Last year, I played a different role, closer to our defensive line. I was not used to it but these things make you grow.

“I do things better now than a year ago. Of course I enjoy playing higher up where you can be more creative and more risky but whatever my coach or team needs, I’ll do it.”

Her manager has stated clearly her team needs trophies. Caldentey is steeling herself to deliver.

Queensberry promoter Frank Warren has said that Irish boxer Lee Reeves is “making progress” after being hospitalised following his fight in Dublin on Saturday night.

The 31-year-old’s condition was described as “critical but stable” after he was admitted for treatment following his defeat to Gary Cully.

Reeves was fighting for the vacant BUI Celtic super-lightweight title but was knocked out in the 10th round at the 3Arena.

The Limerick southpaw was stretchered out of the ring after the fight.

An update provided by Warren on Thursday struck a positive note.

“My team have been in touch with Lee Reeves’ team and he is making progress. That is what we’re hearing and thank the Lord for that,” Warren said.

“With Lee it’s all about time. Time hopefully can be a healer.”

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Warren added that his hope was that Reeves would be able to “get back to his family as soon as possible”.

Alcaraz won his last match, beating a qualifier in the opening round of the Barcelona Open, but was in visible discomfort and withdrew before the following round.

Photographs and videos were posted to his social media channels showing him participating in a training session in Murcia on Tuesday, sporting the longer hair he has grown out during his absence.

A competitive return is still a few weeks off at least, however, meaning he will at best be carrying almost five months’ worth of rust into the US Open, or at worst won’t be able to play at all.

But with wrist injuries in tennis, waiting longer can help prevent the problem becoming recurrent.

“The biggest risk of injury is a previous injury – if you have had it once, you are more likely to have it in the future”, Ross adds.

“If a player can get back over a period of a few months and they don’t have a reoccurrence, generally they will be ok.

“But some things can become chronic and the pressure of the sport to come back, earn money by playing, and keep your ranking points, is a risk.”

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One of the key challenges a wrist injury presents is psychological – once a player has suffered a painful injury in the joint which controls so much of their technique, it can be difficult to fully trust it again.

“Wrists aren’t easy”, said Andy Murray towards the end of his career, having suffered injuries in both wrists in his early 20s.

“When the ball is low you know you really have to use your wrist to get the ball up and down, or when the ball is coming fast and quite high you need to use your wrist a lot to bring the ball down.

“It’s difficult when you try to come back [from a wrist injury], because the pain that you feel when you initially hurt it, mentally it’s very difficult to let go of.”