London City manager Jocelyn Precheur has said he is optimistic her side can close the gap on Arsenal in time despite losing 4-1 in their debut Women's Super League (WSL) fixture.
It was a productive opening 20 minutes for the WSL debutants, with opposition manager Renee Slegers admitting they were "really hard to play against."
But after taking an early lead through a penalty from Kosovare Asllani, they were unable to absorb the pressure and allowed Arsenal to show their quality in a 4-1 victory.
"Obviously I'm disappointed at this moment and even more when I see how we started this game," Precheur said afterwards.
"I really liked the first 20 minutes of the first half. The organisation was good. The intensity increased. It started to become harder for us.
"We played Arsenal, the champions of Europe, so of course we expected a tough game. But I think we are able to do better than this."
It was London City's first game in the WSL, having won promotion at the end of last season. They recruited incredibly well in the summer window, with a total of around £3 million ($4m) spent.
Several key players like Grace Geyoro -- sources have told ESPN she is the new world record transfer fee at €1.6M ($1.88m) -- and Daniëlle van de Donk were unavailable for selection, with new signings like Katie Zelem, Alanna Kennedy and Jana Fernández spending only a week with the team before their debut fixture.
"We have the capacity to adapt to the WSL. Fortunately, we recruited some players who know what this intensity is. Now we just need to create a team. I have a lot of a job to do to create cohesion. Many of the players only started a week ago," Precheur said candidly.
"We missed a few of the new signings this afternoon. We need to give time to adapt in a new country and a new league for lots of them. We will have a tough beginning but as soon as we start to adapt, I am optimistic and I think we can reduce the gap we saw today between us and Arsenal."
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Precheur admitted that the players deviated from the gameplan in the second half. Combined with Arsenal's press and organisation, the French coach felt they could have done better and also acknowledged that it will take time for the team to adjust to the league.
"We are talking about the WSL -- the toughest league in the world -- even if we are ambitious we know it will be tough and cannot be done in just one week," he added. "I'm fully convinced the club will be a big club in the near-future but we are talking about Arsenal, they have just won the Champions League. How much time we need, I cannot tell you."
London City host Manchester United next weekend in their first top flight home fixture.