The Scottish international was named in the starting XI by new head coach Sonia Bompastor and played 90 minutes in our 1-0 win over Aston Villa at Kingsmeadow on the opening night of the new league campaign.

Having missed the majority of pre-season after picking up an injury during our tour of the USA, the Scottish midfielder was pleased to feature in the victory that kicked off our WSL title defence.

'Tiring, first and foremost,' Cuthbert reflected with a smile after the win. 'I obviously didn't have a lot of minutes in pre-season, so on a personal level, I was delighted to be back in the side.

'I have been doing a lot of work behind the scenes with conditioning in the gym and trying to keep myself as fit as I could be. You have to be as prepared as you can be, especially being put in for a transitional game like this.

'For us, we wanted to get off to a winning start. We know in previous years that we've not done that. It wasn't pretty at times but it's not always going to be against the teams in this league, it's getting better and better.

'Finding different ways to win is really important – and it's going to be throughout the season.'

Although the league season is in its infancy, Cuthbert – now playing in her ninth WSL campaign wearing Chelsea blue – knows picking up a victory at the first opportunity is vital in setting the tone.

And while the first three points of the campaign was the main objective, the midfielder admits there were aspects of the squad's performance that highlighted areas where they can improve.

'It's (winning) absolutely important,' Cuthbert said. 'Sonia has set her stall out early and she wants us to win every game.

'We know it's never going to be easy. If we had scored more goals in the first half, then we'd have put the game to bed a bit.

'We can't give teams the chance to get back into the game. We can't give them confidence to get at us, so that's something we'll be working on coming into next week. We really have to take our chances because if you give any team a sniff in this league then they'll take it.

'Every point counts. We won't know the true extent of the importance of points until we get to the end of the season, but in previous years we've been in that chasing position.

'That puts you under a lot of pressure, especially if you're still competing in four competitions. So, getting off to that winning start tonight and putting points on the table early is exactly what we wanted to do.'