Kerr opened the scoring at Kingsmeadow on 15 minutes before adding two second-half goals to take her tally to six goals in the Barclays FA Women’s Super this season.Her three goals helped the Blues seal a 3-2 victory over the Hammers to take Emma Hayes’ side just three points behind league leaders Manchester United with one game in hand.Speaking after the full-time whistle, Kerr said: ‘It’s my first hat-trick for the club so I’m really excited about that.‘It was disappointing to concede two goals but this league is getting so much better.‘You aren’t going to get any easy games and West Ham showed that today, but credit to us for sticking it out. A win is a win and now we move on.’

Fellow forward Fran Kirby returned to the Blues’ starting line-up having missed the our last three fixtures following an ankle injury picked up on international duty.The England international combined well with Kerr, providing assists for two of her goals and Kerr hailed the impact of Kirby.‘It’s nice playing with players like Fran, Pernille [Harder] and Bethany [England]. Every day in training we score goals like today, Every time Fran gets the ball I know it’s coming back.‘That ball is what I get every day in training and Fran makes it easy for me.'

Sunday’s win over the Hammers set a record of 12 successive Women’s Super League home wins and the victory also extended our unbeaten run which stretches back to February 2019.

Next up for the Blues is a trip to Lisbon, Portugal, where we begin our Champions League campaign by taking on Benfica in the round of 32 first leg and Kerr has spoken about the competitiveness for places in the team.‘Every game matters for us. If you aren't performing in training, you aren’t in the team, you aren’t in the squad. Every day is really important and that keeps the standard high.‘Although we are a tight-knit team, we are so competitive and we are competing against each other. When we play an intrasquad match, it’s always very competitive and has a bite to it because everyone wants a spot in the starting 11.‘There is always people on the bench who, although you are supporting your team, you are still disappointed and so it keeps you hungry. Emma is kind of lucky, she doesn’t have it easy but there's fire in everyone’s belly, everyone wants to be in the team and contributing.’

Our Champions League game versus Benfica kicks off at 3pm (UK time) on Wednesday and you can watch the game (UK only) on the 5th Stand app and chelseafc.com, plus on YouTube.