Arsenal defender Lotte Wubben-Moy says Arsenal’s 3-1 first leg lead will have little bearing on how Wednesday night’s Champions League quarter-final second leg against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. The defending champions defeated Chelsea 3-1 last week, but Wubben-Moy, speaking at the pre-match press conference, says the game will have the same temperature it always does.
‘I think when you play for Arsenal Football Club, there’s always an expectation to represent a badge, but I think more so to represent when you’re playing a North London derby like we did on the weekend. But in this case, this London Derby, there’s a pride with that. And regardless of what the score was in the first game, we look at this as yet another London Derby.’
Wubben-Moy has been in fine form after getting a run of games at centre-half due to injuries for Leah Williamson. Lotte admits that rhythm is usually the midwife to strong form. ‘I’m made for this, when it gets into flow rhythm and game upon game, I live my life pretty meticulously. I think when I look at the trajectory of my career, it’s been in moments when I have rhythm and when I have confidence.
‘You mentioned that I’m in a good place, I am playing football with a smile on my face and I feel strong and confident and I think when you’re in that sort of space, you can contribute to the team, and that’s always top of my list of what I want to do.’
Asked by The Cutback’s Max Radwan about her increased importance in possession, Lotte replied, ‘I actually had a conversation with Renee a few months ago and I said I think I play best when I have responsibility, when I have a task, when I have a requirement to give more than just for myself. The way I see my role in this team is I think to lead, lead in actions, lead in conversation, lead in collaboration.
‘I feel fortunate to be one of the leaders on the pitch with Kim as well and Leah and Steph and Alessia Russo. I view myself very much a puzzle piece in that. I don’t think I’d be able to play so much on the ball with it didn’t have if or if I didn’t have the support of the full-backs to support the goalkeeper and our midfield.
‘I think I view my role as a puzzle piece and a piece that I’m very gladly part of this Arsenal puzzle that puzzle is then for our opposition to try to solve.’ Arseblog News asks Wubben-Moy whether the ‘muscle memory’ of winning at Stamford Bridge in January would have any bearing on the second leg on Wednesday evening.
‘If you look further back in the history and Tim, you know that there are many examples of where we have been on the opposite end of a game like that, in a sense, I think they’re the games that fuel me most and sit on my muscle memory, like you say more heavily.
‘Going into a game like tomorrow, that’s the kind of muscle memory that I want to be using to power us on to win and play it in the way that we know we can and that’s the Arsenal way. And actually with the Arsenal ways.
‘I don’t know whether Renee did this on purpose today but we spoke about the Arsenal _ways_. Usually we use the Arsenal Way just a non-plural, but I think the idea is that we will have multiple ways to play tomorrow and that being something that we can flip and pose the question to Chelsea.’