Lauren Hemp wants to “right the wrongs” of last season’s Women’s Super League title collapse after Manchester City face Arsenal in their opening game of the new season.
Last season's runners-up will travel to the Emirates Stadium to take on the Gunners in their season-opener on September 22. Sky Sports.
The win over Arsenal in May swung the WSL title back in Chelsea's favour, with the Blues claiming their fifth successive league title and Emma Hayes' last in charge.
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Man City lost to Arsenal in the second half to hand the WSL title back to Chelsea.
Hemp said losing the title so late “still hurts” but spoke of the importance of a win to start the new campaign.
Reacting to City's opening game against Arsenal, Hemp said: Sky Sports News: “I'm really excited. Obviously, being at the Emirates for the first game of the season, I hope we can start off with a good performance.
“We've done a lot of preseason preparation and are in a good position for that game. I'm excited. It's a great way to start.
“Obviously we were very disappointed (last season). It still hurts when we look back and think about it. We hope to right that wrong as we head into the new season.
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Chelsea lifted the Women's Super League trophy and bid a dream farewell to Emma Hayes.
“There have been so many trophies this season that the experience and hunger to achieve something big this season has grown even more. I believe in the squad we have and we can continue to do that.
“It would be nice to win and that would put us in a good position for the remaining games in the transfer market. It's important to get off to a good start and get going.
“From our experience of the first two games against Chelsea last season, we know what it's like and we know what Arsenal can bring. Hopefully we can match that.”
Hemp are looking to avenge last season's WSL title race defeat.
Hemp: I admired Miedema. I need her!
Manchester City have added two players to their summer squad ahead of the new season, with West Ham's Lisa Shimizu the second signing after big-name free agent Vivienne Miedema.
The former Arsenal striker, who is the WSL's all-time leading scorer with 78 goals, will join Manchester City's dazzling line-up alongside last season's Golden Boot winner Khadija 'Bernie' Shaw.
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Arsenal legend and WSL all-time leading scorer Vivienne Miedema has joined runners-up Manchester City on a three-year deal.
“We have fantastic talent. We recently signed Viv, which is a great signing for us,” Hemp said.
“She has done a lot of good things at Arsenal and we hope she can do the same at City. We have so much talent in this squad, we came so close last season and we hope we can fix that. It all starts from the opening weekend.
“She's a fantastic player. She has a lot of strengths and very few weaknesses. She's a natural goalscorer and we need that.
“We’ve got Bunny Shaw who does that so having Viv alongside her would be fantastic. We’ve known for years what she brings to the WSL and I looked up to her a lot growing up so it’ll be great to share the pitch with her.”
Watch Arsenal take on Manchester City on the opening weekend of the new Women's Super League season on Sunday 22 September, kick-off at 12.30pm.
