“That said, to get back to 1-1 – normally in the past we’ve seen that become 2-0, 3-0 – we stayed in the game, and we stayed in it until the end.

“Towards the end, that belief and that fight that we showed maybe came a little bit too late. If we had carried that through the majority of the game, then I think we could have taken something because they were definitely there for the taking.

“We pushed; we went toe-to-toe with them. They’re a really good team, so there’s definitely positives we can take.”

Defensive resilience was required heading into Saturday’s match against an Arsenal side who put five goals past Watford in the Women’s FA Cup the previous week.

Attacking talent like Alessia Russo, who was just nominated in FIFA’s Women’s World XI for 2023, and Vivianne Miedema, the all-time leading goalscorer in the Women’s Super League, were rendered useless for a large portion of the match this past weekend.

“The entire team is involved; it’s not just the front line,” she said. They’re really skilled at producing overloads, and you can be sure they’ll have opportunities.

“I thought Courtney [Brosnan] – especially in the first half – made some ridiculous saves and that’s when you start to think ‘maybe it is our day’.

“Eventually, good teams will break you down, they’ll punish you if you’re not on the top of your game.

“The goals we conceded were very sloppy, but you have to be near-enough perfect to get a result against Arsenal.

“There is a lot we can learn from and a lot of positives we can take going forward.”

The Toffees’ next games are a doubleheader versus Leicester City, which includes a 2024 homecoming game at Walton Hall Park.

Finnigan stated that the priority now is to ensure that every player is in peak condition for Sunday’s league encounter against the Foxes, as Everton has been unable to advance in the League Cup.

The captain continued, “I think as a team we’re in a good place despite the result on Saturday.”

Although some of the outcomes prior to Christmas didn’t go our way, as a team, we’re making progress. You occasionally seen that against Arsenal and against [Aston] Villa.

“It’s a massive game against Leicester. I feel like the girls will be well up for it. We want a bit of revenge to be honest for the game at their place in October.

“We’ll regroup, obviously we got a Conti Cup game [midweek]. Whilst it doesn’t mean anything in terms of progressing out the group, it’s a chance for people to get minutes, a chance for us to work on more things, then we’ll go again on Sunday at Walton Hall Park to hopefully get a win.”

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