The Blues sit second in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League, two points behind Arsenal with a game in hand over the Gunners heading into tomorrow’s game.

Many will dub our fixture at Kingsmeadow as the title decider however Hayes believes the race will go down to the last wire.

Speaking in a press conference, Hayes said: ‘The team is growing nicely into a consistent, reliable unit that have shown with small numbers we’ve been able to come together to produce performance after performance and that’s something we’re just going to build upon. As we always say, it’s another game. For us it’s just a chance to get closer to where we want to be.

‘We don’t focus on prioritising one game over another, to win a league you have to be consistent performers over the entire campaign and of course there’s going to be highs and lows within that,’ Hayes added.

‘Our team is in a good moment, we’ve got good momentum but that doesn’t mean anything. Arsenal have top players, we’re sure they have a plan coming to our place tomorrow, but we’re just focused on making sure we have a great training session today – which we did – good spirit, good energy, good togetherness. We’re looking forward to being at home again, another sell out, it’s going to be brilliant.’

Hayes’ side have won our last four competitive games, most recently beating Manchester City 1-0 at Kingsmeadow.

The Blues boss explains where she thinks the form has come from, saying: ‘We’ve been finding a level of consistency to our performances that perhaps wasn’t there in the first half of the season. Why that is? Just team development, it comes from everyday working on the little details in analysis, on the training pitch.’

Arsenal beat the Blues in the reverse fixture on the opening day of the season, however Hayes’ side beat the Gunners 3-0 in the 2021 Vitality Women’s FA Cup final in December.

‘In any defeat you always learn, we’ve gone on from that game and it’s a new opportunity for us tomorrow night,’ Hayes explained.

‘We are in a position where we haven’t been in first position all year, we’ve been second, or third or fourth or fifth. The focus for us is climbing up the table, accumulating points to get us in a race, which there is and we think that even after this weekend, it’s still going to be a tight race to the end because there’s so many top opponents in the league. As I’ve said every week, I think the league will go to the last day of the season.’

Hayes praised Jonas Eidevall’s Arsenal side, adding: ‘There’s no denying they’ve been at the top for a reason and that’s for the rest of us to try and emulate.

‘He’s brought a lot to the league, for us to become the best league in the world we need the best coaches and he’s done an amazing job so far.’

Hayes provided the media with a team news update, revealing Ji So-yun has returned from Asian Cup international duty.

‘Ji has been a massive player for us over the years, been instrumental in this fixture many, many times over so Ji will be absolutely critical to tomorrow night’s game.’

The boss also provided an update on club captain Magdalena Eriksson.

‘We knew she wasn’t going to be available for this block, beyond that we don’t know yet.

‘While she’s going through a difficult, personal moment with her injury she’s still playing an important role as captain behind the scenes.’

The league is closer than ever this season, last weekend Arsenal drew 1-1 against third-placed Manchester United, while the Blues gained a vital win over Manchester City.

‘When you’re able to gain points like we did last weekend, while they dropped points... I think those twists and turns will go the whole way. Regardless of the outcome tomorrow night we think it’s a game that Arsenal don’t need to win. We don’t think that a draw or even a loss in either direction is necessarily defining. It’s still too early to call which way the title’s going to go.

‘What I mean by the Chelsea of old is exactly that: we find a way to win. That’s what Chelsea have done really, really well in my time here is that we have found ways to win in the game. We’ve seen it this side of Christmas, a return to that. That’s given the team so much belief and so much confidence going from game to game.’

Guro Reiten scored the all-important goal against Manchester City last weekend and Hayes was full of praise when discussing our No.11’s fine form.

‘Guro is such a coachable player, I really enjoy coaching Guro. You can have really honest conversation with her about whatever and one thing I know about Guro is if she hasn’t been good enough by her standards, she takes responsibility for herself. We took her out of a game after 45 minutes and her response to that was world class.

‘She put herself in a position were she’s now gone on a run to make sure not only does she stay in the team but her contributions are growing, she’s stepping into responsibility. That’s what you get when you’re coachable, that’s what you get when you’re accountable not just to yourself but your team-mates

The boss was full of praise for the support from Blues’ fans, with tomorrow night’s game a sell-out for the second week running.

‘We love being at Kingsmeadow, we enjoy a packed house. The support the team has had from our fan base has been exceptional. Yes we’ve delivered for them, we played our part, but they just make the game so much more enjoyable.

‘We hated it with no fans, to have them back and to think we’ve got a sell-out last week and this week, this is why we prefer to be at Kingsmeadow.’

Tomorrow’s game kicks off at 7:45pm (UK time) and will be broadcast live on Sky Sports.