Erin Cuthbert has missed the League Cup. After three years of defeats, it is back in Chelsea's hands. And whilst the Scot 'hates all that chat' about a quadruple, she does hope today's victory proves to be a catalyst for something special this season.
After back-to-back wins in 2020 and 2021, the Blues had tasted defeat in the previous three Women's League Cup finals heading into Saturday's clash with Manchester City.
But an early goal from Mayra Ramirez and an own-goal 13 minutes from time helped Chelsea to a 2-1 win at Pride Park to hand the Blues a third Women's League Cup title.
'I’ve missed it, I’ve honestly missed it,' Cuthbert said. 'I think for me, I just want to try to win every trophy available. It has hurt that we haven’t won that.
'In previous years, we have just wanted to use that as a motivation to go into the next and use it as a catalyst going into the next. We haven’t been able to do that in previous years. I hope this can be the catalyst for something great for Chelsea.’
‘Everyone thinks it’s an easy thing [to win trophies], but it just gets harder and harder and we get hungrier and hungrier,' Cuthbert continued.
‘We didn’t play at our best, but I think that’s the beauty of it: we just hang in there.'
Chelsea face Man City again in our next three matches, as we have two Champions League quarter-final ties either side of a Women's Super League clash next Sunday.
The Blues are still in the running for all four competitions we entered this season, with a Women's FA Cup semi-final also lying in wait.
So it comes as no surprise to hear head coach Sonia Bompastor and her players are regularly asked about a potential 'quadruple' by journalists.
‘I hate all that chat to be honest,' Cuthbert replied when asked about the quadruple.
'I heard Lucy (Bronze) say a comment this week that we’re unbeaten so far but it honestly means nothing, what trophy have you got to show for that? Other than this Subway Cup, that’s one out of four. We’ve just got to try to take one foot in front of the other. Champions League next and see how far we can get.’
One thing Cuthbert does have a lot of time for is our amazing Chelsea fans.
Our supporters made up a large chunk of the 14,187 attendance at Pride Park, despite the two hour-plus journey up the M1 or M40.
Cuthbert said: ‘I just love the Chelsea fans. I think we outnumbered Manchester City today in terms of the fans and we shone.
'We really needed them at times where we were under the cosh a little bit, but they always turn up in their numbers and we’re really going to need them over the next few weeks.’