Lauren James can be England's salvation! Chelsea star is becoming a killer in front of goal and Lionesses need her to bail them out of Nations League embarrassment

Of course, James has always threatened to become this effective. This is someone who was training with Arsenal's senior side at the age of 14, was featuring for Manchester United's relaunched women's team just over two years later and signing a unprecedented four-year contract at Chelsea before her 20th birthday.

After a string of niggling injuries kept her sidelined for extended spells during her maiden 2021-22 campaign with the Blues, James finally got to show her new club what she was all about last season. The anticipation was palpable and she did not disappoint, delighting the Kingsmeadow faithful with her unique ball-carrying abilities and creativity.

The hype was real, with the only criticism being James' lack of goals and assists. It took until Chelsea's sixth game of the season for her to break that duck, but she did it in some style, netting a brace and laying a goal on for Sam Kerr in a 3-1 victory over Aston Villa.

However, although there were plenty more magic moments that followed in a blue shirt, the questions over James' ability to consistently find the back of the net and register assists continued as the campaign progressed.

At times, she was holding onto the ball for too long to the visible frustration of her team-mates, while her finishing was far from elite. During the 2022-23 campaign she averaged 0.12 goals per shot, with over 50 players managing better figures, while less than 30 percent of her efforts ended up on target.

Chelsea boss Emma Hayes provided an honest assessment of James' development early in the season: "Her talent is clear, but most importantly we must keep doing the right things. If we all want her growth to continue in the direction it’s going - trust me, I’ve coached footballers for such a long time – you have to keep nailing the things around them, the habits. She’s still a young player and we’re still nailing those habits. I urge everybody to be calm with her. It’s important for us to nurture her in the way we do, but also without massive pressures and expectations, which I know is hard to avoid."

In the end, James would finish the season with five goals from 18 WSL games, more than enough to earn her a place in Sarina Wiegman's England squad. And after the Lionesses underwhelmed going forward in their group-stage opener against Haiti, Wiegman played her trump card, introducing James to the starting XI on matchday two.

Denmark were England's opponents and the Chelsea star didn't take long to make an impact, netting a superb opener just six minutes into her World Cup debut. That goal turned out to be the winner too.

Things got even better when England faced China, with James dropping an all-time great Women's World Cup display. By the time the dust had settled on an astounding 6-1 victory, she had two goals and three assists to her name, and Wiegman was understandably delighted with her "special" talent.

By this point, LJ-mania was very much running wild back home. But things got hairy in the round of 16 when James was sent off for stamping on Nigeria's Michelle Alozie. The Lionesses did eventually triumph on penalties, but the naive moment derailed the hype train. "Obviously what we she did was wrong and she knows it was wrong and apologised for it publicly and now she faces the consequences," goalkeeper Mary Earps said at the time.

James' resulting two-game suspension kept her out until the final, and she could not atone for her error after coming on as a half-time substitute, with Spain triumphing 1-0 thanks to Olga Carmona's goal. It was a damp squib of an ending for James when it had seemed like being her World Cup. But red card aside, her match-winning ruthlessness in front of goal in the first two games hinted at her growing maturity.

And this trend has accelerated at Chelsea during the current season. After waiting so long to find the net in the WSL in 2022-23, James rose to the occasion in the Blues' curtain raiser against Tottenham, latching onto Niamh Charles' cross to double her side's advantage at a time when Spurs were threatening to rally.

It wasn't just her goal that was notable, though. With Kerr injured and Fran Kirby still not fully fit despite a cameo from the bench, James completely ran the game for the Blues, drifting all over the pitch to carve out her side's best opportunities.

There was a slight drop off in the two WSL games that followed against Manchester City and West Ham, with the caveat that hardly any Blues players impressed during those matches, which resulted in James being rotated out of the side for her side's trips to Everton and Real Madrid.

And if Hayes was looking for a reaction, James provided one against Liverpool in front of the Stamford Bridge crowd. Her hat-trick was the most compelling evidence yet of her growing composure in front of goal. All three were expertly-taken strikes, showcasing her world-class ability to beat defenders and newfound poacher instincts, and she further bloated her goal tally against Leicester with two more calm finishes.

This recent glut of goals is an expression of James' development in the final third. This season, she's been far more clinical than in 2022-23, averaging a WSL goal for around every five shots she takes, while just under half of her strikes are going on target. This form has seen her rise to the top of the Golden Boot rankings, level on six goals with Manchester City's Bunny Shaw.

This emerging ruthless streak is bad news for Chelsea's WSL rivals and also a credit to the transformative effect Blues boss Hayes has had on James' career. Throughout her meteoric rise, the soon-to-be United States women's national team manager has been there to temper expectations, constantly reminding English football's most talked about starlet of the need to remain grounded and improve her game.

This tough love has not damaged the pair's relationship, though. Ahead of the World Cup in the summer, James paid tribute to Hayes for her role in getting her back back to her best following her injury struggles.

"Emma is always helpful, she’s played a massive role in just getting me back to being myself again. She just says ‘enjoy it’, like ‘start enjoying the moments’," she said. "I had two years of just like constant injuries. She managed me well and it’s allowed me to find my feet again. In the moment, everyone is like ‘why is Lauren not playing?’ and I want to be playing on the pitch, but in the long run it’s obviously paid out and it’s kept me on the pitch this season."

And when James scored that iconic Liverpool hat-trick, she immediately gave Hayes some of the credit. "Amazing, I think even better to do it at the Bridge. Obviously with the news of Emma [Hayes] leaving, everything I do I am thankful to her."

With everything falling into place at club level, James heads into the international break with a point to prove for England. Since that breakout World Cup, she's failed to come alive at international level. In the September fixtures, James was fairly ineffectual from the start against Scotland and then only managed 10 minutes as a sub when the Lionesses suffered a rare defeat at the hands of the Netherlands.

James then missed the most recent international break, a disastrous double-header against Belgium that left England's Nations League campaign - and Great Britain's Olympic hopes - on the brink. But this time around, she's back and Wiegman desperately needs her to replicate her outstanding Chelsea performances on the global stage.

The big question is, where will she be playing? She's usually used as a nominal left winger with license to roam in possession for her club, with her most recent England start seeing her used in a similar way.

However, should Wiegman shape her side up in a 4-2-3-1 against the Netherlands, James could also be used as No.10. She was a revelation in the position during the World Cup, dropping that legendary China display when deployed behind a front two of Lauren Hemp and Alessia Russo.

But things are a lot more complicated for these games. The return of of Beth Mead adds another experienced head to the forward line, while usual starters Chloe Kelly and Hemp are both in excellent form for Manchester City. Ella Toone, meanwhile, has responded to a slow start to the campaign by getting back to her creative best in recent weeks.

Despite the intense competition for places, it's hard to envisage James not figuring in a significant capacity over the two games. And, really, Wiegman should be fielding her from the start in both. Not just due to her recent form, but also because she does not seem to work as an impact sub.

On paper, the prospect of bringing on the electric James to exploit a tiring defence is tantalising, but the reality has often been rather different. Last season, James did not register a goal or assist for club and country in any of her appearances off the bench - a streak that has continued during the current campaign. That seems to suggest that she struggled to make a difference if she's not able to feel out the game from its outset.

Thankfully for her, it appears that clubmate Kirby will instead be used as the super-sub by Wiegman this week. Following Chelsea's 4-1 Champions League victory over Paris FC, in which the 30-year-old changed the game following her introduction at half-time, Hayes revealed she'd discussed managing Kirby's workload with the England boss.

"I felt there was a lot of work out of possession that over 90 minutes might have been too much for Fran. I said this to Sarina [Wiegman] this morning. It’s so important we keep her healthy for England and Chelsea," she said.

This seems to suggest that Kirby - who's played plenty of football recently - won't be playing two sets of 90, opening the door for James to feature behind Russo. It's a golden opportunity for James to cement herself as England's most important attacker, and if she can continue to be as punishing in front of goal as she has been recently, she could be the decisive factor in pulling England's Nations League campaign back from the brink.