For all of Arsenal Women’s collective inconsistencies this season, one player who has been dependable week-in, week-out is Lotte Wubben-Moy.
She has stepped up repeatedly to help keep Arsenal in the hunt for silverware despite their disappointing start to the season. The England international centre-back’s contributions defensively and in possession have helped Arsenal settle, particularly in big home games at either Meadow Park or the Emirates Stadium, and they have become more interesting following reflection on a statement she made after the 2-1 win against Manchester City at the former in November.
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“I’m at the stage of my career where I don’t want to be taken for granted, I want to push and (prove) I can go toe-to-toe with these players,” Wubben-Moy said in response to a question about how she dealt with prolific City striker Khadija Shaw on the day.
Those accustomed to Wubben-Moy know she thinks before she speaks. The 25-year-old Londoner can articulate exactly what she wants to in a way that can be in-depth or concise, depending on which she feels is required.
This was evident in May last year when she recalled a “pivotal moment” in the away dressing room at Chelsea after an FA Cup defeat a couple of months earlier that got Arsenal’s season back on track, and a year earlier when talking about her off-pitch role with charity Common Goal.
Her verbalising that she did not want to be taken for granted stuck. It is a statement that has seemed to speak through her performances all season — one in which she has become the most established she has been since returning to Arsenal in 2020 following three years in the United States at the University of North Carolina.
Asked to expand on that statement from November before the Continental Cup final against WSL champions and league leaders Chelsea on Sunday, she said: “When I look at my trajectory as a player and the next few years, which are ultimately going to be my prime years as a centre-back, I said to myself, ‘This is yours for the taking. This is your moment. You know within you how good you are, it’s just time to show it and share it with the people around you’.
“That’s how I view football — it’s an opportunity to share and give to others. When I feel most full, empowered and emboldened to be myself, that’s when I can put out the best performances. Ultimately, that warrants respect and not being taken for granted.
“Too often in the past, I’ve just ‘been there’. Knowing I can be more, and that being reflected in my performances this season, I look back but more so look forward and say, ‘How can I continue to do this and continue to build on what I know is me and is going to push me on to be the player I know I can be?’.”
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Wubben-Moy, who won the Continental Cup in 2015 as a 16-year-old during her first spell with childhood club Arsenal and lifted it again as they beat Chelsea in last season’s final, has played fairly regularly since her return to the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In her three full seasons back, she started 43 of a potential 66 WSL games (65 per cent) amid competition from Leah Williamson, Rafaelle Souza, Jen Beattie and Anna Patten. Williamson and Rafaelle were perceived to be the first-choice pairing with their right/left-foot balance. Both suffered with injuries at different times, however, which allowed Wubben-Moy to rack up starts, gaining more experience as a young centre-back.
Amanda Ilestedt has been her primary central defensive partner this term as Williamson made her way back from an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injury in April, although Laia Codina was signed in August shortly after helping Spain win the World Cup.
Despite Arsenal recruiting those two players in her position last summer, Wubben-Moy has started 16 of their 17 WSL games, coming off the bench in the other. She has become part of the squad’s leadership group in that time and her influence is visible to those watching the matches as well as felt by the women playing alongside her.
Still standing despite that level of competition in recent years, Wubben-Moy adds, “It’s not about anyone else. It’s about me. About my mentality and what I’ve brought to it.
“In football, it’s too often that we look at the big players and say, ‘They’ve won this, they’re captain of that’.
“Until you perform on the pitch, until you’re in the moment and warrant that respect, that’s the moment you look at yourself and say, ‘That’s where I’m taking all my inspiration from. That’s where I’m taking my impetus from’. That’s what I’ve done this season and what I’ll continue to do.”
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Wubben-Moy has not been taken for granted this season at club level. She showed her value in a different way by scoring the 84th-minute goal that put Arsenal ahead in the 3-1 away win against Aston Villa last Sunday, and will aim to have a similar impact back in the West Midlands this weekend in the final at Wolves’ Molineux ground — especially given how their recent WSL game with Chelsea went.
“We didn’t perform (losing 3-1 at Stamford Bridge), and that’s not us,” she says. “If we were looking at ourselves and said, ‘Oh, we did everything, but we still lost’, we’d be in a different place. We have a special squad with a lot of talent that hasn’t fulfilled its potential. Looking at (our) opportunities, we have to do so on Conti Cup final day.
“Interestingly last season, it was similar in terms of being knocked out of the FA Cup early, being out of the title race and looking to get some silverware in the Conti Cup. So there are quite a lot of similarities.
“Having played Chelsea recently and building, it puts us in good stead in terms of how much we can take from that game, how much we can learn and also the feeling that we all have of wanting to right the wrongs.
“Looking at Arsenal as a whole, it’s not necessarily just the Conti Cup, silverware is within our blood. It’s within our DNA. At the beginning of every season, we set out with the intention of winning silverware. Ultimately, when we reflect on a season, we’ll be disappointed if we haven’t done that, so we have a big opportunity to do that.”
(Top photo: Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
