During our domestic Treble-winning campaign last season, Kaptein started 17 matches in all competitions and weighed in with four goals and four assists. A solid year for a player who was then still a teenager, but her rapid development since underlines her status as one of the most exciting young talents in women’s football.

This season, the Dutch midfielder has started 13 times already, with only Keira Walsh (16) and Millie Bright (15) making the Chelsea XI on more occasions. Kaptein has also made five appearances as a substitute, meaning she has appeared in every match this season and is the only member of the squad to have done so.

Now, at the halfway point of the campaign, she has scored five goals – already eclipsing last season’s total – and provided three assists for her team-mates.

Speaking after our 9-1 Women’s League Cup quarter-final win over Liverpool, she was understandably delighted with how Chelsea finished the year.

‘I think today was really good,’ said Kaptein. ‘I think as a team, we really wanted to end the new year with a good performance, so I think we did that really well. We were really happy.

'We’ve had some ups and downs in the first half of the season. I think in the last two or three months, we were really good. We’ve played some great football, much better than we did at the beginning of the season. We’ve improved really well, so we'll see what next year brings.'

The Blues now have a Women’s Champions League quarter-final and a League Cup semi-final to look forward to in 2026, but have some work to do in the Women’s Super League, as we sit in second place, six points behind Manchester City.

Kaptein explained why the resounding win against Liverpool will give the side confidence to push on after the winter break and challenge for a seventh consecutive WSL title.

‘I think we need to just focus on ourselves,’ she continued. ‘We need to win the games. We need to play good football, like we did today, and score a lot of goals. If we do that, then we can get closer and closer.’