The 31-year-old enjoyed some family time with her newborn baby Felix during the Christmas break, but is now ready to go again as we move into the second half of the season.

‘It's always nice coming back and seeing the girls,’ said Reiten. ‘I think everyone's had a great time with their friends and family all over the world at Christmas. It's always nice to see them and to get started. We know we're going to play a lot of games, so we need a good start.’

West Ham are our first opponents of 2026, a side who we defeated 4-0 away from home back in September. Yet that result counts for very little heading into this weekend, with the Hammers appointing a new manager in former Juventus Women's boss Rita Guarino.

The Blues are instead focused on closing the gap to Manchester City in the WSL table, and understand exactly what needs to be done to put pressure on the leaders.

‘It's always interesting playing a team with a new manager,’ continued Reiten. ‘It’s a fresh start for them, a new year, and they're going to come with a lot of energy and want to prove themselves.

‘They’ll want to show us what they’ve got. It will be different and challenging, but I think for us, it's mainly about focusing on ourselves and our way of playing.

‘For us, it’s been two weeks since we last played a game. We’re getting straight into the league, and we know how important the league games are going to be. We are a few points behind, but we're not going to give up. We're going to fight until the end, and every game matters. Starting with West Ham.

‘We’ve known for many years now that it’s a case of doing our job, taking one game at a time and then seeing where we end up. We are winners, so we want to win every game, and we want to win the league again, but we know it's going to be difficult.

‘Man City are ahead of us, and half the season is gone. We have to give everything to make up the gap.’