Pernille Harder and Sam Kerr both scored a brace each while Ji So-Yun, Aniek Nouwen and Bethany England all also got on the scoresheet as Hayes’ side cruised to victory in the fifth-round of the Vitality Women’s FA Cup at Kingsmeadow yesterday afternoon.

Speaking after the game, Hayes said: ‘In the second half we looked like ourselves, the first game after international break is always hard. I didn’t feel that our approach to the game was right in the first half, I wasn’t happy about that, irrespective of the sending off.

‘I will focus on the second half and build on Aniek Nouwen getting her first goal for the club, Ji getting her first of the season and Beth England coming back. For me, they are huge positives as well as Lauren [James] starting.’

Hayes explained why she was not pleased with the first half: ‘We didn’t do enough for each other, those standards, something that matters for us, wasn’t there in the first half and we had to tighten up on that.

‘It’s 90 minutes for a reason, it doesn’t mean you’re going to dominate in its entirety and I always think these games are the hardest ones, it takes a while for your team to come back together and it took us 45 minutes.

‘There is a standard we have at Chelsea and the players know what that is and that’s something I expect irrespective of when the games might come, and the team displayed that in the second half.

‘I wanted more going forward from the team and we showed that. We were ruthless when it mattered.

'There was some really good stuff in the second half,’ Hayes added.

‘The link up with Sam and Fran, Pernille getting her goals was good, I thought Ji improved significantly, Drew [Spence] came into the game really, really well. We kept a clean sheet. When you play any team you’ve got to be more ready from the off and that’s something I’ll look at going into this week.’

Next up we face Manchester City in the final of the Continental Tyres League Cup on Saturday 5 March at Plough Lane. Click here to obtain your tickets