Chelsea winger Alyssa Thompson was visibly overjoyed after netting her first Women's Super League goal in a pivotal clash at the home of our London rivals, Arsenal.
The USA international showed both her pace and her quality as she raced up the pitch, played a one-two with team-mate [Johanna Rytting Kaneryd](/en/teams/profile/johanna-rytting-kaneryd), and clipped a sublime finish into the top corner to put us 1-0 up after just nine minutes.
While Arsenal managed to equalise late into the contest to earn a share of the spoils, Thompson's strike will live long not only in her own memory, but in Blues fans' minds too.
'It was amazing, it felt like a dream,' Thompson beamed. 'I was in shock, honestly! 'I was really happy, and it was so nice celebrating with the girls and just having them all around me.
'When Jojo played the ball back to me, I knew I only had a little bit of time, so hanging it off one touch was probably my only option.'
This was Thompson's first encounter against Arsenal, and she reflected on the fast pace and intense nature of the derby.
'It definitely felt frantic,' she explained. 'Obviously, they are a really good team, so I feel like in these games it’s going to be back and forth.
'I think in the second half, we weren’t able to get pressure on the ball, and they just kept coming at us. Once we won it back, we were all out of position. For the next game, we’ll know that when we are defending, we need to get in position quickly and get open for others when we win the ball.
'We are really revved up at the beginning of games and ready to play. When we come into the locker room, all of us are super excited, and we want to get on the pitch and show what we can do. We have a lot of quality, and we do really well to punish teams straight away.'
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