Arsenal’s Danielle van de Donk says she’s never “scared” when teams are keeping the Gunners at bay – as she always knows a goal is on its way.
Joe Montemurro’s side ran out 2-0 victors in the first ever north London derby in the Women’s Super League on Sunday, with Kim Little breaking the deadlock just after the hour mark.
That was despite Arsenal enjoying extended periods of pressure at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, particularly in the first half, but Van de Donk insists she was never worried about Spurs keeping them out.
“I don’t know what it is, but I stay relaxed and chilled, I don’t really get scared anymore I just know it’s going to come,” the 27-year-old said.
“We’ve just got so many people on the pitch that can score goals so I feel comfortable.
“That sounded arrogant, I didn’t mean to sound arrogant!"
A lot of those goals have come from Van de Donk herself too, who sits among the top-scorers in the league. That is partly due to the different position she is playing in too - the Dutch international usually a midfielder but currently playing on the right of the front three.
"It’s not my favourite role, but that’s what's asked of me for the team and I am doing the job," she said.
"It’s still not a bad role at all to be fair, it could be a lot worse!
"I’m scoring some goals from there this season which makes everything better.
“It was a bit of a surprise to be fair,” she continued, talking about Tottenham’s set-up of playing with two strikers who marshalled Arsenal’s centre-backs closely.
“But we do practice to play against every system.
“I must say they are doing very well. I really like how they play and I think they got their tactics right today.
“It was obvious that they were very hungry to get points against Arsenal.
“I actually like the growth of Tottenham. I really like the team, I think they’ve got a very special team and I am just happy to see that the level is getting higher and higher.
“It makes the derby even better and it just makes the league a bit better as well.
“I do know a couple of the girls and I’m glad to see that they’re doing so well, but not well enough against us.”
Before Little’s goal and Vivianne Miedema’s late strike to clinch the win though, things were not going so smoothly for Arsenal, with Spurs having plenty of chances of their own, particularly in the first half.
Van de Donk acknowledged as much, but was just happy to leave victorious.
“We just wanted three points and a clean sheet and we did it, but we know it wasn’t our best game today,” she said.
“We had to work on how much pressure we were putting them under [in the first half], [Montemurro] had a lot of things to say [at half time].
“He knew we weren’t quite doing enough that we were being a bit sloppy.
“He told us to forget about it though, that we had another 45 minutes to get the goal and once Kim got the goal it all became a bit easier for us.”
