Lauren Hemp believes summer signing and teammate Yui Hasegawa has played a key role in helping in-form Manchester City surge up the Women's Super League table.
Hemp recently made her return from over a month out injured by coming off the bench against Liverpool in the League Cup, before completing a full 90 minutes in the Manchester Derby, which City drew 1-1. It means Gareth Taylor 's team are now unbeaten in games in all competitions following a tough start to the season, where they were beaten by both Aston Villa and Chelsea.
That followed a turbulent summer that saw the departures of Caroline Weir, Lucy Bronze, Georgia Stanway and Keira Walsh, as well as the retirement of star striker Ellen White. City brought in seven summer signings to compensate and the Lionesses winger has been impressed with them in recent weeks.
But Hasegawa, who arrived from WSL rivals West Ham in September, has particularly stood out for Hemp as a player who has hit the ground running at the Academy Stadium.
"All of the new signings who came in over the summer have been amazing," said Hemp. "They have all slotted in so well here.
"In particular, Yui (Hasegawa) is one of the standouts in the league for me. She controls the middle of the pitch like I've never really seen before, she's had a big impact.
"Even in training it's always really hard to get the ball off her, to be honest I have no chance of doing that. She's been an incredible signing for us and you'd think that she has been playing here for years.
"It's great to have her, she's moved from another part of the country and hit the ground running. It's great to have her and all the new girls."
Having lost so many long-serving players in the summer it would be easy to this year as a transitional season for City. But Hemp and her teammates have recovered superbly from a tough start and are now playing their part in a genuine four-way title race.
Having just come back from the high of winning the Euros, Hemp and the rest of City's England contingent were brought back down to earth with a bump when the season start. They were knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid and former teammate Weir, meaning they wouldn't compete in the competitions' group stage.
And when they were left without a point after their opening two league games, alarm bells were ringing. But Hemp revealed she was never worried by the slow start to the season, saying it was always going to take time for the new arrivals to adapt.
"We had a lot of new signings but they really have all fitted in well," she said. "It was always going to take us a little while to get connected and work well together.
"Over this first part of the season you can see that it was always going to take time to gel on the pitch. But now you are starting to see the City side we have wanted to show. And we've been working on a lot recently."
City resume their WSL campaign on January 15 away to Hasegawa's former club West Ham.
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