Olivia Smith: Arsenal boss Rene Selegers praises the striker’s ‘versatility’

Smith used her lightning speed to beat Manchester City defender Rebecca Knaack for the winner at the Emirates Stadium, before showing awareness of her positioning and timing of her movement to score the winner in a 4-0 Champions League win on Wednesday.

“We saw some things that were new to us [about Smith] “And that’s the beautiful part,” Sligers said.

“Obviously she’s a very good dribbler but what she does really well in those central spaces is combining with Alicia [Russo] And Frida [Maanum] In round 10, they have some great combinations.

“Her timing and movement are really good and she is an explosive player, so anything that drops inside the box she reacts very quickly.”

With Blackstenius still out and Beth Mead unavailable due to a hairline fracture in her leg, Smith is likely to be used in a central role again when the Gunners head to the south coast this weekend.

Hosts Brighton won 4-2 at Broadfield in this fixture last season, although they entered the competition in poor form after four defeats from their past five league games.

Conversely, Arsenal are aiming for a third successive Premier League win and have not lost in the league since October.

When asked what she expected from the Seagulls this time around, Sligers said: “They’ve had a challenging campaign but I think they’re a good team. “Last year they didn’t perform well and we lost that game, so we know what they can do.

“They have a strong press but last time when we played them away from home they did something completely different. We will see what their game plan is.

“As a team, we’re in a better place than we were a year ago. It’s all gone into our backpack, so we know we have all that experience of how to handle different moments as a team.”

Watch MOTD live: Brighton & Hove Albion vs Arsenal in the Women’s Super League on Sunday 15 February, at 14:30 GMT.