It may have been only the second defeat of the season at the weekend but it did cost the Blues a trophy, and Hayes made it clear afterwards that she had not enjoyed seeing the silverware-hungry Gunners players show greater desire than her perennial winners when it came to some of the basics of the game.

There is the chance to quickly return to winning ways with a WSL match against Brighton at Kingsmeadow on Wednesday evening. Hayes welcomes the chance to play any opposition so soon after the Conti Cup final defeat.

‘You just want to go again and we just have to be ready for Wednesday,’ she said. ‘We are at home and for us the focus has to be back onto the league.

‘The team is disappointed. Everyone is disappointed with the way we performed on Sunday. So I expect there'll be a reaction from the group. That's what I hold so dearly about this team is that I know there will be a response.’

Hayes is hoping there will be renewed hunger for the three competitions the Blues are still in contention to win.

‘That is what winning is,’ she noted. ‘We have won the vast majority of titles over the last four years, I don't think that winning everything all the time is a normal thing and on Sunday the better team won, but it is just one game.’

While Chelsea and Arsenal were playing a cup final on Sunday, Manchester United were winning to go four points ahead of the Blues in the WSL but having played two games more. We also have two games in hand on Manchester City, one point ahead of us in second place.

Hayes does not expect to have Pernille Harder back from injury in time for visit of Brighton, and she reported on Friday that Fran Kirby might need a week to gauge the response to an injection in a troublesome knee.