Goals from Beth Mead and Mariona Caldentey sealed the victory for the away side at Stamford Bridge, and the Blues head coach felt that her side faced an uphill struggle once Arsenal took the lead.

'The turning point in the game today was the first goal Arsenal scored,' she said afterwards. 'I think it was in a transitional moment in the game, and matches between top teams are mostly defined by fine margins.

'Whichever team takes the lead in these types of games, it helps them a lot. I didn't watch the game back, but I think we were probably not good enough in terms of the performance we put on the pitch to expect a better result.

'When you play Arsenal, as you could see, they are a great team, with great players, and I think out of possession, we could have dealt with some situations better. We probably left too much space for them, and because they have really great players, they were able to use that space. Their technicality is high.

'If you are not able to keep the ball for a certain amount of time against a top team, it becomes more difficult because you have to make a lot of runs to defend, and you also give them more confidence.'

Despite her disappointment over the result against the Gunners, Bompastor is determined to keep going. Chelsea travel to Manchester next Sunday to face league leaders City, and that gives the boss hope that her side can continue to fight to retain the WSL crown.

'My mentality is to keep working hard to give everything we can because the gap is big, but nothing is impossible,' she continued. 'So we need to try to control what we can and focus on ourselves, to make sure we put as much pressure as we can on Man City. We need to now protect our second place.

'That's where we are, and it will be tough until the end. We have nine games left. But that's the job we need to do.

'I know my players, and I know the DNA we have at this club. This result hurts everyone, but the best way to bounce back is to have a good reaction. I think mentally we are strong enough to stay confident. We know the qualities we have in the squad, and that's what we need to focus on, making sure we take the good learnings from this game and look to the future with confidence.'