In our first WSL match of 2025, Chelsea, who currently sit six points clear at the top of the table, visit 10th-placed West Ham United at the Chigwell Construction Stadium.

The Blues make the trip to the Hammers undefeated in our 10 league games thus far, only dropping points in a 1-1 draw with Leicester City in December. That form means Bompastor's side have accumulated a six-point advantage at the summit, but she told the media that is not something at the forefront of her mind.

Rather, our head coach insists the priority is to improve performances which will in turn see us gain good results, with the points then taking care of themselves.

‘We have a lot of games to play in the second part of the season,' Bompastor told the media. 'After West Ham, it will be the mid-season point in terms of the number of games but we are taking it game-by-game.

‘At the moment we are leading the table by six points so if we can keep that gap then it will be good and we can keep up our winning mentality.

‘But, we are only focused on game-by-game and not focusing on how many points are between us and the other teams. Our focus is more on the way we play so we have more chances to win the games.

‘I know every game will be difficult and there are still enough points for other teams to come back and win the titles, which is obviously not what we want. So, we will be really focused on how we can perform in every game to keep that distance from them but it will be difficult for sure.’

Although Bompastor did admit she has been impressed with the start her side made during the first half of the campaign ahead of the winter break, she reiterated there is still a long way to go before anything is decided.

'I probably wouldn’t have expected that (the six-point lead) when I started the job, but we did a pretty good job,' our head coach added. 'If you look and analyse the performances then we have had some great moments in big games, but it was tight.

'We were probably efficient enough to turn the game in our favour, but even with six points ahead of Man City, I still feel this league is so competitive and you can still drop points every weekend against every team so this is our mindset.’

West Ham are the only WSL team Bompastor is yet to face as Chelsea's head coach. The Hammers sit 10th in the league standings with eight points, having won two, drawn two and lost six of their matches so far.

But, despite their position in the table, our head coach is expecting a challenging encounter and said there will be no underestimating the opponent.

‘West Ham are in a position in the table that doesn’t reflect their quality,' she said. 'They have really good players and we need to be aware that if we do not play with all of our quality then we could be in trouble. So, we are ready for that.'

In her pre-match press conference, Bompastor was asked about the January transfer window and the number of young Blues - Louna Ribadeira, Lucy Watson, Greta Humphries, Julia Bartel, and Aimee Claypole - who have been sent out on loan.

She believes the moves are a vital part of their development and can provide more opportunities for an impactful introduction to senior football.

‘It is really important,' Bompastor answered. 'Coming from my previous environment, where the competition in the French Federation was set up to develop the players in the league, here in England it is a bit different.

‘The only team you have as the reserve team is the Under-18s and I think the gap is too big between the first team and the Under-18s so it is really good to have these players on loan because it is the first time they can be in teams competing in the WSL or the top teams in Europe.

‘This is the right thing for them to do to develop individually. The players who are 17, 18 or 19 years old, are not quite ready to compete for the first team but they need to have an environment where they can develop and be ready to compete with us in the future.’