The Blues make the long trip north looking to extend our winning run to eight matches in all competitions, with five of our previous seven wins coming in the league where we occupy third place heading into the weekend.

Victories over Everton, Brighton and Aston Villa in October rounded off a strong month where we collected maximum points to sustain our title challenge. Our next assignment comes against the league’s early pace setters in front of the television cameras on Sunday.

There was no midweek game for the first time since the previous international break, giving the players some much needed recovery and preparation time after a demanding fixture schedule. Green provided an update on the squad’s fitness ahead of the trip north.

‘We’ve got a few players missing similarly to last weekend’s game against Villa. Fran Kirby is still unavailable. She is still recovering from a viral infection, so she’s not available. Maren Mjelde is also still recovering from a hamstring niggle, so she’ll miss out as well.

‘Jelena Cankovic is back training but not with the full squad so again, this game has come too early for her. We’re without Melanie Leupolz who is on maternity leave and then Katerina Svitkova has not trained today. She’s got an illness, so she’ll be touch and go as to whether she will train tomorrow or not.’

With five wins from our opening six league matches, there is a feel-good factor amongst the squad. Green is delighted with the way the team have been performing and is keen to use the momentum we have generated to good effect on Sunday.

‘We’re really pleased with the way the squad is playing at the moment, the number of chances we’re creating, the number of goals we’re scoring. We’ve got a lot of momentum behind us at the moment.

‘We’re going to be missing a few players this weekend, but that’s why we have a big squad. We’ve got a lot of quality in our squad. We’re going up there full of confidence and looking to use that momentum that we’ve built up over the past few games.’

Lauren James and Denise Reddy have been nominated for the Barclays WSL Player of the Month and Manager of the Month awards for October. Green is full of praise for the pair and believes their hard work is getting the recognition it deserves.

‘Lauren has had a really good month, in fact she’s had a really good start to the season. She’s a quality player, she’s put some great performances in this month. It’s no surprise she got nominated off the back of those two great goals last weekend against Aston Villa, plus another assist. We’re really pleased for Lauren.

‘In terms of Denise and I, it’s great for Denise to be nominated. It’s testament to all the good work that Denise, myself and the coaching team have done in Emma’s absence and a real credit to the team. The players have really stepped up in this period to try and achieve the points needed to make sure that the team are in a good position in all competitions when Emma returns. It was really nice to hear those two nominations today and real credit to everyone involved.’

In terms of preparing to face fellow title challengers, Green says the build-up to the game has been no different from any other, placing an emphasis on the positive results and performances we have been displaying in recent weeks.

‘It’s just another game to us, it’s pretty much business as usual really. We’re both at the top end of the table, still only three points available to win. It’s a long season, we’re approaching it like we do any game. We’re all looking forward to it, to go up there with the early pace setters. We’re on a really good run ourselves, a lot of momentum behind us and we’re all looking forward to it.’

On the health and wellbeing of manager Emma Hayes, Green was pleased to report that her recovery continues to progress well, but there remains no guarantee as to when the manager will be well enough to return.

‘Emma is doing well. As you saw last week, she was able to attend the game albeit in the directors' box. It was great that she was well enough to come to Kingsmeadow. She’s getting better day-by-day. There is still no date set in stone for her to return. Come Sunday, she’ll take a decision as to whether she is going to come to the game or not.

‘After the international break, she’ll be in a lot better place, another couple of weeks of recovery will be important for her, and we’ll welcome her back as soon as the date is appropriate. She’s getting better and that’s the main thing.’