It was her headed goal that sealed the WSL title away at Manchester United with two games to spare back in May. Her Player of the Match-winning performance against Wolfsburg saw her not only score in the 2-1 win, but go the extra mile defensively to prevent the home side from finding the back of the net.

Her famous displays in last summer's Women’s European Championship with England - one of many tournaments where she impressed - also only serve to reinforce the point that a challenge really does bring out the best in Bronze.

‘When the games are a little bit easier, I get a bit bored,’ she explains when we sit down with her at our winter training camp in Portugal.

‘I want to be pushed. I think it's very cliche of defenders to say they want to play against the best strikers in the world, but I genuinely do. Going up against someone who makes you focus harder, pushes you harder and makes you better.

‘I've always had that mindset from a young age, I think, because I played football and sports with my brother, who is two years older than me. He never let me win, but he was never horrible to me, so I flourished under that.

‘It's just been the same as I've grown up. I go back to being that kid when I was 10 years old, wanting to beat my brother, where it's fun to be challenged, and I’m not nervous. I think it's a different mentality from other people.

‘Some people shrink. It's a fear factor, like there's the fear of losing, which I completely understand, but I think I just have the joy of the kid who loved football. I play football now because I enjoy it.

‘The game is 90 minutes long. You'll make a mistake. They will get past you at one point, so I think that outcome doesn't bother me because I know it's inevitable that I will get beaten at some point. I've trained my whole life for this. There's nothing I'm going change in the moment that will make me better.

‘They are who they are, and I am who I am, and we go toe-to-toe. If they're better than me, I’ll shake their hand at the end, and say what a great player they are.’

Bronze explains that she loves discovering solutions, whether that’s working out tactics or solving problems off the pitch. Her brain works rapidly, and she can harness that ability to her advantage.

That means that she can deliver big performances or score goals in key moments, and the desire to solve problems allows her to play with freedom and without fear.

‘Maybe being in that small percentage of players who are the most successful means being one of the ones who aren't as fearful of the outcome and do enjoy the challenge, and who do want to go toe-to-toe,’ Bronze continued.

‘They're players who do go on to have great careers because they don't hold back. They're not scared of what other people think or what they look like. They just go full throttle.

‘It’s opportunity, and then mentality. When those combine, it's more likely that you're going to be successful. I'm one of the few people who have had that kind of combination in my career.’

While her mentality has been a recipe for Bronze’s success throughout her career, there was a time when she was in her twenties when she says she had a reputation for being a sore loser on occasions when she was on the wrong side of a defeat.

Now that she has matured, the desire to keep testing herself against the best is the reason she has kept playing at the highest level of the game.

‘If I lost when I was younger, I’d be in a bit of a mood for the rest of the day, or be quite upset, because I wanted it so badly,’ she said. ‘I think the fact that I don't like losing drives me more than needing to constantly win more. I don't have trophies up at my house. I don't count accolades. People always tell me what I’ve won, and I can't remember which ones they were, because I don't keep a count.

'That’s been the reason which has driven me on to have such a long career, definitely. I know there are plenty of people who give up playing when moments are tough, and you get a bit older, it gets a bit harder, and your body takes longer to recover. I’m like, ‘nah, I just love competing so much’.'

In terms of the current title race, Bronze feels like sometimes it’s easier to be hunting down the frontrunner than being out at the front.

That’s the current situation at Chelsea, as we sit six points behind Manchester City in the Women’s Super League table, and the experienced defender explained why some players can focus too hard on being chased when their team is out in front at the top of the table.

‘Maybe it's easier to start from a lower point and have something to work towards than to drop off,’ says Bronze. ‘I think that was evident last year. I definitely heard a lot of people say, ‘We need to make sure we beat this team, because of the gap’.

‘No one wants that, and City will have to be very aware of what everybody else is doing, whereas we have to just keep our own games in mind.

‘We've got to play City again anyway. A part of it is in our hands, and there are so many games to still play in the league, and big games as well.’

As we have already found out, having Lucy Bronze at Chelsea in those big games to come will be an incredible weapon.