Every time someone gets injured, a bit of your game falls away, and you have to fill the gaps. Last season, with a huge injury list including players such as Jordan Nobbs, Kim Little and Danielle Carter, I think we did amazingly well at Arsenal. Wherever people had to play they did – we picked up the roles quite quickly.

As one of the players who was still fit, I weirdly didn’t feel more pressure. I just really wanted to win the title. We were all desperate for that first title for Arsenal in seven years and everyone was on the same page. That was the focus. We knew that we didn’t have many people and the whole experience brought us closer together.

As we battled across the finish line we were just very thankful for the great start we had together. We built up a lot of points in the first block of games and ultimately that won us the league.

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That was the thing that we could fall back on. The team was still good, we weren’t panicking, but every time someone gets injured you feel scared, especially when it’s going well, because we were on fire towards the beginning of last season.

It was our versatility that saved us and took the pressure off. I played all over. I like to be in the middle because that’s where I feel free and most natural; I am able to do whatever I want and really read the game. If I’m on the wing Joe [Montemurro, the manager] always tells me I have that same freedom, but I struggle to feel like I do. I’m almost scared that I’m going to get in the way of, say, the No 10 wanting to run into the pocket. Joe’s calmness also played a big part. When he came in he brought a lot of clarity. We’ve got a very creative team and Joe’s standards and our individual creativity are a great match.

I don’t think you can find a player who has one bad word to say about Joe. He’s very chilled, his tactics are on point all the time and the analysis is great – he’s basically always right. But it’s his human side that makes him a good manager. It’s easy to get caught up in needing to get trophies but he takes the pressure away from it.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Daniëlle van de Donk with her manager at Arsenal, Joe Montemurro. ‘He has brought a lot of clarity,’ says the Dutch international. Photograph: David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images

It wasn’t until we played Birmingham towards the end of the season that we felt any kind of relief from the injury pile-up. When Katie McCabe’s goal went in, in the 79th minute, it was the best feeling ever. We knew if we won we were back in the Champions League. We were all dying to get the club back into Europe but nothing was falling right in that game. No one was really hitting the ball at the goal. When Katie hit it I was just so grateful that we’d finally taken a shot.

Two games later we were welcoming Manchester City to Borehamwood already knowing we were champions. I’d never had that before so I felt amazing. We could, not in a bullying way, sort of say: ‘Ha, it doesn’t matter what you are going to do now.’

Now our team is stronger. The squad feels stronger. We’ve lost to Bayern Munich, Wolfsburg and Barcelona in pre-season, and beaten Tottenham. But those losses don’t mean we’ve had a poor pre-season – we have learned a lot from those games.

As well as players coming back from injury we’ve also had players coming back late from the World Cup. It has taken me a while to get over the World Cup final, and to rationalise it. It was almost a month before I could really think about how proud I was of the team, and myself. You don’t play a final not to win. Everything goes into it: you put all your sweat and tears into it. It is fair enough to say that the USA were better than us and deserved to win, but it took a while to realise what an amazing achievement second place was for us.

Women's Football News (@WFRumour) This goal by Daniëlle van de Donk deserves more views. What a gorgeous pass and what a great finish. pic.twitter.com/Uyf5ch08ps

We have to be realistic. It was our second World Cup and the Netherlands had not achieved much before we won the Euros in 2017. Now we’ve shown that wasn’t a one-time thing and ultimately it is a small step for the future. I hope we inspire a lot of young kids in the Netherlands to play football and to be even better than we are now so that it keeps us on this high level. It is now the biggest-growing sport in the Netherlands and I’m proud of that but at the same time I hope the league is going to get a boost from it, because it is not strong enough, at the moment, to keep us at the top.

Those of us at the World Cup have not had much of a rest but we also can’t wait to be playing again. This season is going to be the best yet. We’ve won the title, we’ve got Champions League football and we are going to be even better than we were last year – and we were already pretty good to watch.

Retaining the title is going to be very difficult but that’s the thing I like about the league – it’s always a challenge. We’re at a stage now where everyone can take points off of everyone else. If the WSL isn’t already the most attractive league in the world then I think it will be in the near future. Hopefully we win, and hopefully the fans keep singing my song. I love it. It is a strange but brilliant feeling – and it’s got the best rhythm.