Arsenal captain Kim Little believes winning the Continental Tyres League Cup could lay the foundations for a period of prolonged success for the Gunners.
Jonas Eidevall's side have endured a challenging season to date, losing talismanic forwards Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries and slipping to fourth in the Women's Super League table after failing to win any of their league games in 2023.
A 2-0 defeat to Chelsea last time out also saw Arsenal crash out in the Fifth Round of the FA Cup, though the Gunners won't have to wait long for the chance to exact revenge on their London rivals, with the two sides set to face off again in the Conti Cup Final on Sunday.
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Arsenal are the most successful club in the competition's history, having picked up the trophy on five previous occasions. Little, who made her debut for the Gunners in 2008 and returned for a second stint at Meadow Park in 2017, has been party to four of those victories and the forward is confident another win this weekend could represent a real turning point in the club's campaign.
"Within football, you have different moments in a season," Little told football.london. "Sometimes you have negative moments which spur you on but sometimes you have positive moments like we did five years ago in the Conti Cup which drove us on to win the league.
"I think because we haven’t had a moment like that since we won the league, as a club we’re trying to do all the right things to move us forward across the board and you can feel that within the club. I think a moment like that of us being successful could be a catalyst to then drive us forward."
Despite their illustrious record in the Conti Cup, Arsenal will go into Sunday's clash as underdogs, having failed to beat Chelsea in their last five attempts, as well as losing the 2021 and 2018 FA Cup Finals and the 2020 Conti Cup Final to Emma Hayes’ side.
But while Chelsea have cemented themselves as one of the most formidable forces in the women's game in recent years, Little insists Arsenal have no inferiority complex when it comes to facing the Blues.
"Chelsea have been dominant the last number of years and we haven’t picked up a trophy and that’s not without the will," the 32-year-old said. "We obviously want that as players and as a club and we need to continue to aim for that and keep taking the right steps to get back to that position.
"That’s obviously the place Chelsea are in now but we believe we’ve got a very capable squad of high-quality players and when we’re at the top of our game, we can compete and win those trophies."
She added: “I don’t think there is a mental block (against Chelsea). When you come up against the best teams they can go either way.
"In the two games we have played against them this year we have been dominant in many areas but that’s not good enough, we need the next step to win the matches. We can take those positives but we need to make the percentages work for us."
While a victory on Sunday would mark Arsenal's first trophy in almost five years, winning silverware has been a hallmark of Little's stellar career. In addition to helping the Gunners to four Conti Cup trophies - scoring the winner in the 2012 Final against Birmingham - the midfielder has won a raft of league and FA Cup titles, and that winning mentality only serves to make her even hungrier for more success.
"That’s a constant driver for me," Little said. "I had an experience of playing in a really successful team for Arsenal in my first spell at the club and its one of the reasons I love football and playing this level of sport - aiming for the ultimate and the highest level.
"I think all the players, especially the ones who’ve been here for a long time, have that in them - that love for Arsenal. We want to do all we can to put us in a place where we can show how good we are and what a great club we’re at by winning these trophies."
The final will be staged at Selhurst Park, with a record-breaking 20,000 tickets already sold for the clash. And Little believes the vast increase in demand for occasions like this is a testament to how far the women's game has come in recent years.
"It just shows the growth of the game," she said. "The League Cup Final is obviously played earlier in the season and it didn’t have the same status as the FA Cup of those kinds of fixtures in terms of those attendances.
"There were maybe a few thousand there and we’re now playing at Selhurst Park; a great stadium with thousands of people there. There are more and more of these special occasions in the women’s game, so I’m looking forward to another one of those games."
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