The Blues earned all three points against the Hammers with a goal apiece from Sam Kerr and Bethany England early on in each half. Our Australian forward netted her 12th league goal of the term in the seventh minute when England delivered an inviting ball into the box for Kerr to powerfully head home. The roles reversed in the second half as the two forwards combined once again with this time, Kerr setting up the Chelsea No.9 to head past the West Ham ‘keeper.

Hayes gave her thoughts post-match and said: ‘It was a really professional performance, the early goal really helped the team.

‘The conditions of the pitch didn’t allow us to play our usual game of football, it was a really narrow pitch but we played the conditions well and the team executed the game-plan the way I asked them to.

‘I’m happy for both Beth England and Sam Kerr in terms of their contributions to each other’s goals but I’m really delighted with Zecira Musovic’s debut, she showed all her qualities and why we signed her.

‘It’s just about getting the job done and we spoke about it at half-time so it was great to get two early goals in each half, that settled the team and we thoroughly deserved to win the game.’

Yesterday goalkeeper Musovic was handed her first start for the club and Hayes was delighted with the Sweden international's performance.

‘She’s got great presence, you could feel that and the players around her trust her.

‘Her kicking distances and decision making was excellent, it always a tricky game to come into, it’s a team that is quite direct in their play and in terms of [Kenza] Dali’s delivery, I thought she handled everything superbly,’ said the Blues manager.

Another player she took the time to praise was 21-year-old Niamh Charles who made her third league start this term.

‘We know her qualities in training every day and I always say to younger players they have to be patient, the moments will come but the question is are you going to be ready when the moments come?

‘She had the opportunity to go into a game the other day when the team went down to 10 and she took that opportunity and she’s deserving to be in the starting line-up in what I think will be her position going forward – I think she’s going to be a full-back at the top level and she will compete at a national team level in that position.'

Yesterday marked the Blues seventh clean sheet in the last eight games and the result also meant we became the first team in the WSL history to win five consecutive away matches without conceding.

Hayes spoke about the importance of the defensive element of our game and said: ‘It’s shown the qualities that we have.

‘Maren [Mjelde] in a centre-back for her country and losing Magda is always going to be a challenge for the team but we know we’ve got enough depth in those areas.

‘Maren and Millie [Bright] have been superb the last two games and when you put in a new goalkeeper plus a new full-back and get two clean sheets that’s all you can ask from them.

‘Of course the players in front have to do their job but it was another good defensive effort from the team.

‘I’ve always prioritised it, I’ve always felt that if you’re going to compete, you have to defend properly.

‘We’ve got so much quality as a group to protect our goal and that it isn’t about one player or another, it’s about a mentality.

‘That means from the front doing the hard work off the ball to make it difficult for our opponent to enter our half, for the midfielders to make it difficult to penetrate the central areas and for the back four to be cohesive in line with the goalkeeper to make it difficult to get any chances in a game.

‘That’s stood us in good stead in my time since I’ve been here and we pride ourselves on it.'

Next up for the Blues is a trip to Italy to face Atletico Madrid in the Women’s Champions League in the round of 16 second leg. The match takes place on Wednesday and kicks off at 12.30pm (UK). This is available to watch on BT Sport.