Our Young Gun series gets to know the academy youngsters kicking off their careers at the Sobha Realty Training Centre.
Anniyah Gordon Rodney spoke to us recently about her late start in football, keeping a positive attitude and earning her first England call-up.
My younger brother was the reason I got into football. I used to go to tutoring in a library, which was next door to my brother's football sessions. My age group was straight after, so instead of me being trapped inside revising for three hours a week, my mum thought I should just join in.
If I'm honest with you, I hated it at first! It became a test of my character early on because my mum had never seen me want to quit something so quickly. But after a few sessions I started to really enjoy it.
My skills came on in leaps and bounds working with my mum, and not long after that I was scouted by Crystal Palace.
Starting football at ten years old can feel like you're constantly catching up at the start. At a a young age, kids learn the technical, tactical and positional skills, whereas I was thrown into the deep end and I had to figure it out.
I had a lot of success at Palace. I was their top goalscorer and we went undefeated for two years, scoring an average of seven goals a game. It was ridiculous!
One year, Arsenal were entered into the same cup as us and we met in the final. It was one of the first games we had ever lost. The Arsenal head coach scouted me from there. I don't think I was fully polished, but I did well in my trial and I've been here since I was 14.
I'm an athletic, technical and resilient winger, and my current focus is on goal contribution and finding more consistency with my scoring. I love developing alongside my teammates because we're at the age where a lot can change.
We're going to have to adapt to different playing styles and we need to know each other really well. Having good relationships with your teammates off the pitch can really help you know them as footballers and enhance your own flexibility to play alongside them.
"My hope for this season is for Arsenal to win everything - the league and every cup we're in - because I think we're more than capable of doing so."
While I was at Palace, I got my first England call-up, which was a huge adjustment. I was amazed at the standards in international football because I'd never played this level before. My first session at camp really wasn't the best, but I had a chat with myself, like, "You can do this." That really helped.
By the end of the camp I'd managed to adjust and I was playing some of the best football I'd ever played. When I got my offer to trial here, I knew it would be a familiar environment because the majority of the girls at the England camp were from Arsenal!
My first day at Sobha was during the summer on a boiling hot day. I saw the swimming pool, the gym, the physio rooms and all the pitches, and it was really nice to see the first-team environment. That inspires me to keep pushing.
My hope for this season is for Arsenal to win everything - the league and every cup we're in - because I think we're more than capable of doing so. Over the next few years, my aim is to work up to the first team and ultimately achieve international football at the first-team level.
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