A brace from Pernille Harder and goals from Niamh Charles and Sam Kerr wrapped up a crucial three points for the Blues as the race for the WSL title intensifies.

Emma Hayes made two changes to the side who took on Manchester City at Plough Lane in the Continental League Cup final last weekend, with Zecira Musovic and Bethany England returning to the starting 11 in place of Ann-Katrin Berger and Guro Reiten.

The Blues were without a number of players due to injury and Covid-19 with Magdalena Eriksson, Fran Kirby, Jessie Fleming and Erin Cuthbert all unavailable for this evening’s clash.

In the opening stages both teams tried to take control of the game in what was our third meeting with the Irons this year. The intent was there, and our first real chance of the evening came after just one minute when Jonna Andersson delivered a corner into the path of the on-running Harder. Our No.23’s header bounced off the post, Kerr tried to hit the rebound in from close-range but Mackenzie Arnold was on hand to recover the ball.

Andersson’s pin-point crossing came into play again moments later when her looping ball in found Kerr at the back post, but her headed effort towards Arnold was caught by the Irons’ shot-stopper.

The Blues were on the front foot for the majority of the first half, England had her first real chance 15 minutes in when Niamh Charles headed the ball into the box, but our No.9's strike was palmed away by Arnold.

The Irons’ goalkeeper was kept busy throughout the game, making a number of impressive saves to deny us from opening the scoring.

We broke the deadlock on 20 minutes after a lovely attacking move from the Blues. Andersson won the ball back after a sloppy West Ham pass, drove forward and threaded the ball into the path of Harder who took a touch before curling it past Arnold to give us the lead.

The first goal for the Blues proved to be promising, as in the 18 games we have gone ahead first we have won 17 drawing just once.

Two minutes later we doubled our lead as Charles got her first goal of the season. Harder headed the ball into the feet of our No.21 who rifled the ball in from the edge of the box, leaving Arnold no chance in the West Ham goal.

Bright, who captained the side for the 11th time this season tonight, made an excellent last-ditch clearance from a corner as West Ham began to apply more pressure on the Blues midway through the opening 45.

Zecira Musovic was called into action for the first time shortly after, Tameka Yallop’s curling effort headed towards the top right-hand corner but our No.1 was on hand to make a strong save to deny the Irons from pulling one back.

Harder got her second and our third of the evening shortly after the half hour mark, Ji So-Yun floated a sublime ball into the box for Harder to head home from six-yards out.

West Ham had little chances of note in the first half, though came close just before the interval when Katerina Svitkova found herself unmarked in the six-yard box, but her header was wide of Musovic’s post.

The hosts came out of the blocks quick in the second half and got on the scoresheet just a couple of minutes into the second half, Kate Longhurst’s cross into the box found Dagny Brynjarsdottir who volleyed it past Musovic to pull one back for the Irons.

Hayes had spoken very highly of Olli Harder and his side building up to this evening’s game.  West Ham continued to apply pressure and came close to a second just moments after their first goal, Svitkova’s strike from distance flew just high of Musovic’s goal.

Svitkova had a chance almost identical to that of hers in the first half, the Czech midfielder found herself free in the box but her header flew high and wide of the Blues’ goal.

Kerr got her 20th goal in all competitions this season just after the hour mark to wrap up a comfortable win for Hayes’ side on a cold night in east London.

Our No.20 poked home from close-range to claim her 10th WSL goal of the campaign as Andersson drilled the ball across goal, it deflected off Lucy Parker before falling to the feet of Kerr who made no mistake of slotting home from close range.

We remain unbeaten in the WSL in 2022 following this evening's win. The games continue to come thick and fast, with the Blues in action again on Sunday afternoon hosting Aston Villa at Kingsmeadow in the WSL.

West Ham (3-5-2) Arnold, Cissoko, Parker, Flaherty (c), Svitkova (Joel 75), Yallop (Filis 75), Brynjarsdottir, Wyne (Evans 57), Longhurst, Hasegawa, Walker (Leon 57)Unused subs Leat, Stringer, Snerle, Cairns, HousseinScorer Brynjarsdottir 48

Chelsea (3-4-3) Musovic; Carter, Bright (c), Nouwen, Andersson (Abdullina 75); Charles, Ingle, Ji (Reiten 66); England (Spence 66), Harder (James 79), KerrUnused subs Berger, Mjelde,Scorers Harder 20, 32, Charles 23, Kerr 62

Referee Carl Brook