Tonight, we make the short visit to south London to face WSL newcomers Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in our second game of the new league campaign.

The clash with the newly-promoted side comes after last week’s opening 1-0 win against Aston Villa at a sold-out Kingsmeadow. It was three points the Blues had to dig deep to earn.

After going behind in the 36th minute, the visitors ramped up the pressure and pushed for an equaliser, forcing Hampton into a number of saves throughout. But, it was in the dying stages of the match when she truly stepped up.

In injury time, Hampton made a diving save to deny Rachel Daly at her front post, before pushing Sabrina D’Angelo’s header over the bar, with the Villa goalkeeper having come up to attack a last-minute free-kick.

To get the nod from head coach Sonia Bompastor in the first game of the season, and to repay that faith with those saves has Hampton feeling good ahead of Palace. But, the England international insists, there is more to come.

‘When you’re at a team like Chelsea, you know that in some games you might not be called upon to do a lot,’ Hampton explained. ‘So, it’s about being alert and staying focused.

‘That’s being focused in yourself, your distribution, and your communication with the backline. Even if you’re not making saves, all of that other stuff still needs to be done right.

‘You train every single day and get like 500 shots put to you during the week, but sometimes it can just be for those two moments at the end of a game. That’s why we do what we do. You have to be ready.

‘It was a good first game of the season – a good start, but there is a lot more that I want to be able to do to develop my game and more I want achieve.’

It is not just on a personal level Hampton believes there is room for improvement. The win against Villa, Hampton says, highlighted aspects that the Blues can refine.

‘We have obviously got things to build on from the last game,’ Hampton added. ‘Villa didn’t make it easy for us – that’s for sure – but, the fact we dug deep until the end shows the real team spirit we already have.

‘We fight for each other. We know from left to right and front to back that we all have each other’s backs. We’re willing to put our bodies on the line to get the results we need for the team.

‘I know I can do better and we know as a team that we can improve – and we will have to improve because this season is going to be the toughest that the league has ever been.

‘We know that it’s going to be hard just from watching all of the other games and the results over the opening weekend. We just have to keep working on our style of play and improve how Sonia wants us to improve.’

This will be a maiden WSL clash between Chelsea and Crystal Palace, with the Eagles playing in England’s top-flight for the first time this term after winning the Championship.

A 4-0 defeat against Tottenham Hotspur on the opening day of the season saw tonight’s opposition lose a league match for the first time in six months, and Hampton is expecting Laura Kaminski’s side to show a response.

‘They will come out and cause us real problems,’ Hampton said. ‘It’s their first game at home and they will want to turn up for their fans. They will have a good support behind them.

‘We have to focus on us and we know there is a lot we can improve on from the first game of the season. If we can tidy up the bits that we’ve identified, then we will make life much easier for ourselves than we did against Villa.

‘Palace will be a tough opponent. When you come up from the Championship, you want to prove a point that you are here to stay in the league. It’s not going to be easy for us, that’s for sure.’