‘WE STAY HUMBLE AS THERE IS MUCH MORE TO ACHIEVE’

right now, Barcelona.’ Worse was to follow in their final game before this season’s mid-term break, a 4-0 defeat to Wolfsburg which ended their European ambitions for another year.

Coming off the back of a shock 1-0 Women’s Super League reverse at Reading, manager Emma Hayes admitted her players’ heads were ‘all over the place’ with Covid ripping through the squad in a loss that saw Chelsea finish third in their group and eliminated on head-to-head results.

It was a cruel end to what had otherwise been a glorious year for the club, a 3-0 win in the delayed FA Cup final against Arsenal at Wembley in early December adding to their triumphs in the Women’s Super League, Continental Cup and Community Shield.

‘Hands down, I’ve loved every single year at Chelsea,’ says Bright, who signed seven years ago from Doncaster Rovers Belles. ‘We’re in a really good place but by no means is that easy.

‘All the hard work in the background by the players and staff allows us to be where we are today. I’m proud to be a Chelsea player and represent everything this club stands for.’

“Winning is our aim” is the old adage from the Stamford Bridge favourite Blue is the Colour and Bright, who played in last summer’s Olympics for Great Britain, echoes that sentiment.

‘Every day we go about our work quite quietly, we remain humble at all times and that’s one thing I love about this club,’ she adds. ‘We strive for trophies and to win and to set the bar high but we go about it in the right way.

‘Every day we want to get better and spur each other on to be the best. Winning is the aim, we want to perform and be the team to beat.’

Bright provided one of the more bizarre moments of the season so far in the aftermath of the FA Cup final. As the Blues vice-captain lifted the trophy, the lid fell off and struck her just above the eye, leaving a nasty cut. She is keen to play it down, even if her team-mates aren’t when we speak.

‘It was just a little nick in the eyebrow,’ says Bright, whose team made a winning start to 2022 by beating West Ham 4-2 in the League Cup quarter-finals on Wednesday night. ‘I thought “oh great, the lid’s hit me but I’m not stopping celebrating” but everyone was asking me what I’d done.’

Chelsea forward Erin Cuthbert stops by to poke fun at Bright’s misadventure but the centre-back keeps her flow, just.

‘Everyone asks questions but we’re used to it now and put ourselves in a position where we can deal with that,’ she says of the challenge of playing under Hayes’ demanding management.

‘Emma’s really good at managing the load and freshness is the ultimate goal, having everyone available every game.’

On how Hayes has improved her as a player she says: ‘In every department possible. I was very raw when I first came to Chelsea and I read the game a lot better now, simple things like the timing of tackles and being in possession.

‘You can’t not improve coming into an

‘I’ve loved every year at Chelsea. You can’t not improve here’

environment like this. You develop as a person as much as a player.’

Bright’s task is helped by the fact strike duo Fran Kirby and Sam Kerr score goals for fun. Witness Kerr’s sublime dink over the keeper to seal Chelsea’s FA Cup final win.

‘We take pride in keeping clean sheets and want to be hard to beat whoever we face, but it is really helpful when the girls put the ball in the net at the other end,’ admits Bright.

‘The attacking presence we have in this team is second to none. I love playing against them in training as that’s what develops me as a defender.’

Bright ticked off another achievement last year, taking the captain’s armband for her country on three occasions in the absence of Steph Houghton and Leah Williamson.

She was first named England skipper against Canada in April and new boss Sarina Wiegman turned to the defender for November’s World Cup qualifiers with Austria and Latvia.

The latter brought an incredible 20-0 victory and captaining the Lionesses on home turf in Doncaster with her family

watching added to an unforgettable night for the England centre-back.

‘It was massive for Sarina to put that trust and responsibility in me and to have that belief in me,’ reveals Bright, who has been named in the FIFPro World XI for a second year. ‘Having my family there was the icing on the cake.’

Her focus now is back on the WSL and Chelsea, though, and the Sunday lunchtime trip to Brighton.

‘We’ve been waiting patiently for our first one since the Christmas break and we’re all dead excited,’ says Bright of the challenge with the champions currently four points behind leaders

Arsenal but with a game in hand. ‘We’ve been really looking forward to this and have made sure standards in training remain as high as possible.

‘It’s always been all to play for. Sometimes people might get too carried away with results but anything’s possible. You don’t take anyone for granted or expect to win. We don’t rely on anyone’s results other than our own.’

And with Chelsea still in Women’s Super League contention, FA Cup and League Cup competition, you can bet Bright and her colleagues still believe they can win the lot again.