Having won our opening five games of the season, it is hard to find many negatives. Yet Bompastor is unrelenting in her pursuit of progress and is focused on shoring up at the back, with goals conceded in our past three games after establishing a lead.

And Bompastor knows this is not sustainable if we are to keep winning. ‘It’s a question of confidence and bravery, especially when we have the ball,’ she explained.

‘Against Twente, we lost the ball too many times in the second half. That was when we gave opportunities to the opposition. We have all the quality to perform better than we performed in the second half against Twente.

‘If we are able to keep more of the ball, and control more of the game, we should be fine. I know Tottenham have a lot of quality. We played them in pre-season so we know exactly what to expect from their side, but I also know how we can hurt them.’

Our return to Kingsmeadow comes less than 72 hours after we faced Twente in the Netherlands. Bompastor made seven changes for that fixture and, from what she says, we can expect several more when the teamsheets are handed in for this big London derby.

Managing a squad with such depth and quality is one of the many challenges Bompastor has and relishes as head coach. ‘It’s really important for the players to be frustrated when they are not starting a game,’ she said.

‘That’s what I expect from them because they are competitive players. It’s important for me to show them my trust and confidence. Every player wants to play every game but that’s difficult.

‘You have to make some decisions as a coach. I just make sure I try to explain to them why they are starting or not starting. The most important is to think about the team, and how they can help the team.

‘We will need to have everyone involved this season, with all these games in the schedule,’ added Bompastor.

‘When you play three games in a week, even if you don’t start one of them you will have the opportunity to start another one. When you have the ambitions of Chelsea, you need to have a big squad with a lot of talent and quality because you want to win every single trophy. If you want to achieve that, it’s important to have this depth.’