The fixture at Stamford Bridge was played less than 48 hours after the majority of the squad returned from international duty with their respective countries. It meant there was very little time for Bompastor and her staff to prepare the game.

Yet an early goal from Ellie Carpenter enabled Chelsea to take control of the game and a late second from Sam Kerr ensured we claimed another three points and remained top of the Women's Super League table.

Bompastor accepted the Blues were not at our best in today's London derby, but praised her players for finding a way to win in tricky circumstances.

'It's always difficult when you have to play a game straight after the international break,' said Bompastor. 'You don't have time to prepare for the game in terms of tactical aspects and physical aspects, so there is not a lot you can do.

'The only thing is you can try to come into the game with fresh legs, and I think maybe the difference today between London City and us was the energy. We knew that before the game. I said to the girls at half-time, we need to play smart and to make sure we mentally make the effort to show more desire than in the first half.

'I think we did that quite well, because if you analyse the game, I don't think we conceded a lot, and we scored an early goal, which was fine, but the fact we couldn't score a second one earlier in the game was probably the fact that the game was not over.'

Jocelyn Precheur's side made things difficult for the Blues, and pushed for an equaliser before Kerr scored our second in stoppage time.

That came as no surprise to Bompastor, who had faced Precheur on the touchline in the Women's Premiere Ligue in France and watched plenty of footage of Saturday's opponents in the build-up to the game.

'London City had a really good start to the season,' she continued. 'I was expecting them to put in a good performance and have a lot of motivation coming into the game. Since the beginning of the season, there have been different teams increasing their chemistry and making more connections between their players.

'They will improve even more in the future. Probably today, the energy from our side was not where we wanted it to be. They showed a lot of confidence coming into the game, and they made it challenging for us. Every game is challenging; I didn't expect anything different.'

After providing a superb ball across the six-yard box for Carpenter, Sandy Baltimore was substituted for Niamh Charles at half-time.

There was some concern that the swap might have been related to an injury, but Bompastor allayed any fears.

'Sandy is fine,' she said. 'She just got a knock early on, which is why I decided to bring Niamh in, probably more to bring fresh legs into the game. 'I think today, Sandy did not have the energy I wanted her to have. But yeah, she seems fine.'