With the season entering it’s closing stages, the Blues are embroiled in a tight race for UEFA Women’s Champions League qualification at the top of the table. Behind leaders Manchester City, just three points separate Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal heading into this weekend, with only three teams able to secure a spot in Europe next season.

We have four matches remaining of our 2025/26 WSL campaign, with Aston Villa next on our agenda, when the Birmingham side visit Kingsmeadow for a midday kick-off on Sunday.

For our head coach the task is clear, believing we can’t afford to drop any points in this quartet of matches if we want to edge out our rivals in the race for Europe.

‘It's really clear in my mind and in the players' minds,’ said Bompastor. ‘We have four games left and every game is a must-win game. I think we need to make sure we win the four games left. It starts on Sunday.

‘So every game is really important and we need to make sure we perform at a really good level for us to win the games.

‘You have to play every game with this mindset and mentality. All of them will be cup finals for sure.’

This meeting with Villa falls between the two legs of the quarter-final against Arsenal in our current Champions League campaign.

The Blues suffered a 3-1 loss at the Emirates Stadium last week, but Lauren James’ stunning strike has given us a fighting chance going into the decisive game at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday.

While a defeat is always a disappointment, Bompastor still saw positives in our performance against the Gunners we can take into both the second leg of that tie and the WSL run-in.

‘I think it's always difficult to say we had a good performance when the result is not at our advantage,’ she continued, ‘But watching the game back, I still think we had a strong performance against one of the best teams in Europe.

‘It gives us a lot of confidence, because I think in some moments of the game we were in control. So it just proves we have the quality in the squad and the talent to be able to perform at a really good level and be able to win against every team.’