Today was our first 21/22 WSL match against Chelsea on home grounds at the Emirates. The girls and I were more than excited to be able to play at the Emirates.

"Elena, pass me my shoes!" Beth yells as she storms towards me while I get changed.

"Back up, perv." I push her away while I pull my shirt over my head. "And I don't have your shoes."

"Yeah, you do." Beth steps closer to me as she tries reaching into my bag.

"I don't have them." I smack her arm away. "Why do you instantly think it's me though?"

"Because you're always doing stupid stuff like that!" Beth yells at me, though she had to look up at me which made it less scary. Beth's 5'4 whereas I'm 5'7, well I fit into the 5'6 box, but I'm on the taller end so I say 5'7.

"Excuse me!" I step closer to her as I look down into her eyes. "I do 'stupid stuff', but I didn't do it." I push Beth.

"Prove it." She pushes me back.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Katie comes over and pulls Beth away from me while Leah holds me so that I don't do anything stupid. "Break it up. Beth, we'll find your shoes. I don't think Elena has them."

"She doesn't." Leah says when she looks into my bag. "Although she does have other questionable things in here." I smack her arm and she backs up out of my bag. "Sit down." She tells me and I do, huffing while Beth gets escorted away by Katie to find her shoes.

Beth and I had a weird friendship where we'd have fights like those which seemed pretty real, but 2 minutes later we'd be back to annoying the team together. We could punch each other in the face and still act as if nothing's happened. It's good fun.

"Do you have her shoes?" Steph whispers to me as she slides closer to me.

"I put them behind the door." I whisper back to the girl with a small smirk. Steph shakes her head at me with a smile.

"Girls!" Kim calls us and everyone sits down and listens to what our skipper has to say. "I have the starting line up. Manu's in goal. Noelle, Leah, Jen and Katie are our back line, Lia, me and Frida are middle," I high-five Frida as she sits down at the cubby next to mine, "Beth, Viv and Mana."

After Kim sits back down, the changing rooms gets loud again with Katie and Beth still tryna find her shoes, Steph telling the blonde to calm down while she goes to help her and leads in the complete opposite direction of where the shows are, Leah's music and the light chatter.

I shuffled over to Caitlin who was sitting on her phone in a corner. I could tell she wasn't in the mood to talk, probably nervous about our fist game back and the fact it's against Chelsea, so instead I just sat beside her to keep her company while I watched the scene with Beth and her shoes unfold.

"My shoes!" She squeels as she sees them behind the doors and runs forward to pick them up. She hugs them close to her body and whispers sweet nothings to them which I raise an eyebrow to. "Guys, don't worry I found them!"

"No one was worried." I call and she puts up her middle finger at me as she goes to sit down to put them on.

I sat on the bench next to Steph, Keets, Simone, Anna and Lotte since we were subs. While Caitlin and the other girls who weren't put down to play today sat further down the bench. The whistle blew to start kick off and we watched the ball closely. I could tell it was a tough game already by how Chelsea kept the ball close to their feet, but luckily for us we had Katie McCabe, an irish defender who was not afraid to get a little physical to get the ball.

Once Katie had gotten the ball, she kicked it to Viv, who volleyed it in with no hesitation.

The girls and I cheered as we watched Viv get engulfed by hugs by the girls playing. Viv wasn't one to celebrate a goal so instead we celebrated for her.

Not long after Katie had gotten a yellow, which she shrugged off. In the 44th minute, Erin Cuthbert scored making the score 1-1 just before half time.

When half time was called, me and the rest of the subs got up to stretch and warm up. I jogged up and down the line and did a few dynamic stretches. The girls partnered up to swing their legs and warm them up, but I had no one so instead I did lunges until I felt a tap on my shoulder.

I looked back to see Caitlin giving me a small smile as she told me to use her. I smiled back at her and held onto her shoulder as I warmed up my legs. When I was done, she gave my shoulder a squeeze and sat back down beside Jordan.

The players came back onto the pitch and the game started again. We stood waiting to be subbed on at any part of the game.

I jumped up and down when Beth scored only 4 minutes after kick off. "Go on, Beth!" I cheered for her and she gave me a hand heart. See, back to normal friends.

Jonas subbed me on for Lia in the 55th minute and in the next minute, Chelsea subbed on Sam, Fran and Sophie.

Katie high-fived me after I passed the ball to Mana, who assisted Beth in second goal making the score 3:1.

A minute later, Steph was subbed on for her and Keets for Mana. Steph and I smiled at one another as the game restarted after the goal, though we stopped smiling when Chelsea scored a goal 3 minutes later. We we're still one goal ahead of them.

Without communicating to one another, we all agreed we should defend now rather than aim to score so that we could keep the score 3-2 and win the game.

That's exactly what we did. The Chelsea players groaned at us as we shook their hands. As I came to Sam, we pulled each other in and patted one another's backs. "Tell Kristie I said 'Hi'." I say to her and she smiles back at me.

"Will do."

When we'd came back inside after signing shirts and taking pictures with the fans, I jumped into the shower, but as soon as I came out, I was told I had to go in for an interview, same with Beth.

"Oh, don't piss me off." I say as Katie and Teyah run over with hair dryers. They plug them in and Teyah starts on my hair while Katie starts on Beth's while we also dry our own hair.

I could see Steph recording through the mirror and put up my middle finger to her with an innocent smile.

"Teyah you do Beth's hair cause it's shorter and thinner than mine and then you can all help me on mine after hers is done." I tell the girls and they all nod and do as I say.

"Hi, Chucky." Leah ruffles my messy hair as she walks past.

"Leah, you watch yourself." She only laughs at me.

"My arms are aching." Beth says while we all laugh together. "Okay, I think that's fine. Let's do, Els."

They all move their hairdryers to my hair and I feel the heat instantly. "Ahh, fuck, that burns." I wince.

After a few minutes of us all laughing, we finally finish drying our hair and race each other to the media team.

We get put in seperate rooms and I shake the interviewer's hand. "So, Elena, it's your first game of the 21/22 season and also your first game back after your injury with the Arsenal team, how does that feel?"

"Good, we did well today. Beth and Viv scored some bangers and I was happy I was able to play with the girls again."

"And this will be your first full season at Arsenal?"

"Correct." I nod. The contract I'd signed lasted until the end of this season. I hadn't actually thought about what I'd do after that, but I'd work that out closer to the time.

"How have you settled in then?"

"Good, yeah. I'm living with Steph in her apartment and the team just has this welcoming feeling to it and you all just create a bond."

"That's good to hear, I'm glad."

"Thank you."

"You also changed your number. Back at Houston you were 24."

"Yeah, when I came here, 24 was already taken so I took 14 since it was the next closest number." I reply.

The interviewer asked me a few more questions about the game, the club and then a few about my time at the Olympics.

I waited outside for Beth and then we walked back to the changing rooms together. "Everyone grab their tits, we're going out!" She yelled at the team who cheered while also laughing at her choice of words.