{"id":251455,"date":"2026-01-18T18:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T18:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/251455\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T18:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T18:03:08","slug":"i-do-remember-everything-katie-mccabe-on-arsenal-passion-and-wcl-partying-arsenal-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/251455\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I do remember everything\u2019: Katie McCabe on Arsenal, passion and WCL partying | Arsenal Women"},"content":{"rendered":"

Katie McCabe had the last laugh in May. After Arsenal\u2019s phenomenal Champions League win against Barcelona<\/a>, in which she was part of a back four that did not concede a foul against the three-time European champions, Arsenal partied hard and McCabe was front and centre of the social media posts from inside the club\u2019s after-party.<\/p>\n

At the celebration outside the Emirates Stadium two days later, the full-back was a highlight, shades on, leading the 10,000 crowd in singing her own chant before shushing them and kicking off a rendition of the final goalscorer Stina Blackstenius\u2019s song to the tune of Karma Chameleon, getting a huge cheer when she proclaimed \u201cred is in my bloooood\u201d and being spotted having to run to catch up with the coach before it left the ground when the players finished their third day of celebrations.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideWomen’s FA Cup fourth-round reviewShow\"\"<\/p>\n

Vivianne Miedema came off the bench to score twice as Women’s Super League leaders Manchester City routed Bournemouth 6-0 to take their place in the fifth round of the Women’s FA Cup.<\/p>\n

Goals from Khadija Shaw and Lauren Hemp, and Laura Coombs’ quickfire double, had City 4-0 ahead at the break, with Miedema wrapping up a comprehensive victory over the National League Southern Premier Division side.<\/p>\n

Top-flight strugglers Liverpool also hit six with Denise O’Sullivan, Mia Enderby, Martha Thomas, Gemma Bonner, Alice Bergstr\u00f6m and Alejandra Bernab\u00e9 on target in a 6-0 demolition of fourth-tier London Bees.<\/p>\n

Manchester United enjoyed a 5-0 win over National League Northern Premier Division leaders Burnley with Maya Le Tissier, Julia Zigiotti, Simi Awujo, Lea Sch\u00fcller and Layla Drury on the scoresheet, while second-half goals from Arsenal’s Stina Blackstenius and Kim Little were enough to see off Aston Villa 2-0.<\/p>\n

Bethany England, Drew Spence and Lenna Gunning-Williams scored as Tottenham beat Leicester 3-0 in an all-WSL clash, and Amalie Thestrup’s hat-trick was the most notable contribution to Charlton’s 10-0 drubbing of Swindon.<\/p>\n

Madison Haley, from the penalty spot, and Jelena Cankovic struck late in either half to ease Brighton to a 2-0 win over WSL2 club Nottingham Forest, while Emily Syme completed a double deep into extra time to edge Bristol City to a 2-1 win at Southampton.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Birmingham won 6-2 at Hull, Charlie Devlin’s double was enough to take\u00a0Sheffield United past WSL2 rivals Ipswich and Oxford United saw off Middlesbrough, while Chatham got the better of York 3-0 in a showdown between two fourth-tier teams.<\/p>\n

Photograph: Charlie Crowhurst\/The FA Collection<\/p>\n

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\u201cI worked so hard for that moment,\u201d McCabe says eight months on. \u201cI\u2019ve worked my whole career to lift a trophy like that with a club like Arsenal and I was going to make sure I enjoyed it along with my teammates. I guess the fans just got to see my personality even more because all eyes were on us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t remind her about singing her own chant though. \u201cI can\u2019t sing it ever again. I got so much stick for that. I was cringing after it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The speculation was whether McCabe would remember much of the partying \u2013 \u201cI do remember everything,\u201d she says \u2013 or be able to meet the Republic of Ireland squad for their Nations League game against Turkey six days after the final, but not only did she make it and playd the full game, she put in a player-of-the-match performance in the 2-1 win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got on with recovery and I was back in the green zone where I needed to be. I\u2019m very in tune with what my body needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The player of the match trophy was delicious reward for that turnaround. \u201cThat made it even sweeter because I felt like everyone was writing me off for the game on the Friday,\u201d she says, with a grin. \u201cI\u2019m the captain, I know what I can bring to the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the highest of Arsenal highs, the team are struggling to replicate the doggedness and togetherness that enabled them to turn around tie after tie on the way to that most unexpected of final wins in Lisbon.<\/p>\n

That campaign began in the first round of qualifying and McCabe broke the record for minutes played across a Champions League season. She is Ms Consistent and credits a leg break in a cruncher of a tackle as an 18\u2011year\u2011old, playing for the Dublin-based Raheny United, with embedding an \u201cI do not want this to happen again\u201d mindset that has driven her attention to detail on conditioning her body to be \u201cstrong and robust enough to withstand lots of minutes and big training sessions\u201d.<\/p>\n

That was stage one. Then, in her 20s, attention turned to education around sleep, nutrition and recovery strategies and \u201cbeing at a fantastic club like Arsenal we have the facilities and the staff around to support that\u201d, she says, her cat Coopurr, whose life has recently been turned upside down by the arrival of a puppy, Peggy McFoord, curled next to her in the home she shares with her partner and teammate, Caitlin Foord.<\/p>\n

Katie McCabe has now spent 10 years at Arsenal. Photograph: Martin Godwin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about preparation. I get my prep done early in the week as that\u2019s what I need to do so that I\u2019m performing at my best level. Sleep and consistent bedtimes are a massive part of things. Recovery strategies as well, whether that\u2019s the sauna, ice baths, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n

With matches for Arsenal and Ireland piling high, a lot of discipline is involved. \u201cYou learn to love it,\u201d McCabe says of the strength and conditioning training and recovery strategies. \u201cEspecially the ice baths. You learn to love the pain of the coldness. I\u2019ve even invested in a sauna here at home just to try and chase those one per cents.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCabe has maintained consistency in the quality of her performances. She was sensational last season, becoming an important creative outlet, a title not often attributed to a full-back. She benefited from a traditional left\u2011back, Steph Catley, playing inside her at centre-back, the Australian able to cover and allow McCabe to regularly overlap and exercise her attacking threat.<\/p>\n

McCabe\u2019s qualities are often overlooked or dampened down, the 30-year-old\u2019s reputation for being fiery on the pitch often dominating discourse around her. She has the most yellow cards in Women\u2019s Super League history, the highest number in a season and often plays on a tightrope, physicality a key part of her game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have control over how people describe me,\u201d McCabe says. \u201cWhat I can say is that I\u2019m very passionate, I want to win and I\u2019ll always work hard. I wear my heart on my sleeve with that and I always give it 100%. I hear so much narrative around the way I am. But, for me, I\u2019m doing my job. You\u2019re constantly looking to find that perfect level of performance and, yes, with the emotions of the game or when decisions don\u2019t go your way that can spill over sometimes. But, being passionate is who I am and if I take that away then I wouldn\u2019t be Katie McCabe.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCabe leads celebrations at Arsenal\u2019s Champions League parade. \u2018I worked so hard for that moment.\u2019 Photograph: Adam Davy\/PA<\/p>\n

The next challenge is the team, who host Aston Villa in the FA Cup fourth round on Sunday, finding consistency. Five draws in the league, including a frustrating 0-0 from a dominant performance against Manchester United<\/a> in their first game back after the winter break, have left Arsenal 10 points off the leaders, Manchester City. On Wednesday night they welcome United to Borehamwood for a League Cup semi-final that will not be able to end in a third stalemate of the season against them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a couple of results that haven\u2019t gone our way,\u201d says McCabe, who has hit 10 years with the club she credits with playing a big role in who she is today. \u201cBut the positive that we\u2019ve tried to focus on is that we are doing all the right things: we\u2019re getting into really good areas, I think we nullified Man United\u2019s threat and, as a team, we\u2019re being very productive in what we\u2019re trying to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are obviously looking to tweak a few things. We\u2019ve got such quality up top, so we need to make sure we\u2019re setting each other up in the right areas in order to score. It\u2019s of course frustrating but we can\u2019t dwell on it too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a 12-team league, closing a 10-point gap is unlikely, but McCabe says: \u201cYou never know in the WSL. Especially this year, there\u2019s teams taking points off everybody \u2026 We want to compete for all the trophies and that\u2019s going to be a tough ask, but we\u2019ve got a great team, we\u2019ve got winners in the team, so we\u2019ll be absolutely focused on pushing for that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Katie McCabe had the last laugh in May. After Arsenal\u2019s phenomenal Champions League win against Barcelona, in which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-251455","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}