Kim Little on No More Red and approaching 300 apps

Every home game, one of our women's first-team shares their insight into life at Arsenal in our matchday programme.

As she stands on the verge of her 300th appearance for the club, captain Kim Little reflects on our club's work on and off the pitch. 

As you will be aware by now, this match is an opportunity to show our support for the No More Red campaign. It’s the very first time we will wear the all-white strip and we’re so proud to represent the cause in the FA Cup. The club is doing so many things where every team is united and No More Red is another example of that. No More Red is a symbol of what makes our club so special because it’s one cause among many. 

Arsenal has so many great initiatives within the community where we use our platform for change. Whether it’s trying to reduce youth violence or providing opportunities for young people, our club is so committed to helping vulnerable people within our community thrive. As players, we want to be a part of the campaign however we can. We’re not the ones doing the groundwork to help combat knife crime, but we can show support for those people who are. 

Footballers can be held up as role models for the work we do on the pitch but it’s truly unbelievable how many unsung heroes this city has in terms of community work. There are so many inspiring volunteers who do incredible work. They take on responsibility without ever being asked to and they get so little recognition for their effort. 

If we can raise them up and celebrate them where we can, it raises visibility and perhaps inspires others to follow in their footsteps. The work and people I’ve learned about through No More Red make me want to do more to help others and be a better person, for sure. 

As a team, we’ve used the break to reflect on the first half of the season. We certainly had some highs, especially at Emirates Stadium breaking records with you all, but we want to find more consistency to close out the season. I think we played incredibly well in those games against the top four sides and rose to the occasion to get the results we wanted. But we ultimately lost games we shouldn’t have lost. There were disappointments we’ve had to learn from. We need to keep doing what we’ve been doing to win those big games while also finding a rhythm and consistency to get results elsewhere. 

A lot of that comes down to efficiency. If you look back at any of those disappointing games over the past year, it wasn’t down to a lack of chance creation. We struggled with execution and the end product. Going forward, it’s about ensuring we’re taking shots from the right areas and being clinical. That’s the most important ingredient in those games where you’re up against a low block – the spaces are tight and while we might see a lot of the ball, there are relatively few golden opportunities to score. We need to make the most of them. 

An FA Cup tie is a great way to kick off the year. It’s such a historic competition and one we’ve had a lot of success in over the years. All of us want to have a cup run to be proud of and the occasion at Wembley at the end of it all is a goal to strive for. These cup competitions provide some variety during the WSL season so we’re all looking forward to the game. 

It’s also very interesting that Watford is our opposition, not only because they train a stone’s throw away from us at Colney, but also because we have three teammates on loan there. Michelle, Katie and Laila have trained with us a lot this season so we’ve been able to see them develop. Getting quality game time at their age is incredibly important in terms of development and they’re all doing so well at Watford.

It’s quite wild to think that I’m now approaching 300 appearances for this club. When you first start out, it’s never something you think about as a possibility. I wouldn’t say it’s a primary focus but it’s really special to hit big milestones at the same club. It reminds you of how far our club and our game have come. When I look back to 2008 when I joined, and even before then, there was a whole generation of incredible players who made this club what it is. 

I've been lucky enough to be involved for quite a few years and watch the growth of the game unfold first-hand. Over the past few years, we’ve seen the popularity skyrocket and, right now, the rate of growth in women’s football is probably the fastest it has ever been. It has been an unforgettable journey to have been a part of. 

There have been plenty of special moments across those 299 games but it’s our growing fan base that stands out most. I played against Chelsea at the Emirates in my first season at Arsenal. We won 4-1 with 5,000 fans in the stadium, which was a huge achievement for us back then. Fifteen years later it’s the same scoreline against the same opponent but with close to 60,000 people there. In the grand scheme of things, these record-breaking attendances are proof that people want to keep watching and supporting the women’s game. 

We’ve had plenty of conversations at the start of the year to decide what action is needed to keep taking the club to where it deserves to go. I’ve loved being at a club trying to move the sport and support forward in all aspects.

Read the rest of Kim's blog, as well as a host of other fantastic content, by buying a copy of the Arsenal v Watford programme either around the stadium or online. 

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