This week, we profile Danielle Carter, one of the longest-serving Arsenal Ladies player, a prolific striker who has been with the club for nearly nine years now.

Name: Carter

First name: Danielle

D.O.B: 18th of May 1993

Position: Centre Forward

Squad number: 9

Danielle joined the Arsenal during the Summer 2009, coming from Leyton Orient’s centre of excellence u16 team and started playing with the reserves team alongside Rebecca Anderson, Lillie Bilson, Naomi Cole, Ashleigh Goddard and Lois Roche.

She did not really spend much time with the reserves, despite her young age, as she recorded only six games but ten goals with them and was quickly promoted the first team by Laura Harvey.

She made her first team debut against Sparta Prague in the Champions League, barely four months after signing up for the reserves. Her brilliant performances that year saw her play in many big games including the Champions League tie against Duisburg. Her rise forced Helen Lander to move away from the club and go to Chelsea as she had lost her place to the young striker.

England

Danielle has been called up for England at youth level with 35 caps and 12 goals and senior level.

She played in the u17 and u20 world cup before moving up to the senior ranks, where she scored two hat-tricks in her first two games against Estonia. Her third cap against Belgium did not yield any goals but her current average of two goals per game is exceptional.

Power

Danielle is a powerful centre forward.

Despite her relatively small stature, she can play with her back to the goal and bring other players in. She can hold defenders off very easily thanks to her strength and is very accurate in front of goal.

She is your typical lone striker in a 4-5-1 and was used mainly in this system for a few seasons, before the team reverted to 4-3-3 with two wingers. Her versatility and capacity to accelerate past defenders means she has been played out of position in recent years with excellent performances still coming on the right or left-wing.

But it is a waste to put a prolific centre forward on the wing when the team has been struggling for goals and was missing power up front in recent seasons.

Danielle is one of the team veterans despite, being only 23 years old, and will surely score many more goals for Arsenal and England for years to come.