The club announced yesterday that the player has penned a new contract until the summer of 2025, and our head coach gave her reaction to that news at her pre-match press conference on Wednesday.

‘She is happy to compete and to know she is in an environment where she’ll be pushed every day. It is a choice to play for Chelsea, and I am delighted she has extended. Now it is time to kick on,’ Hayes said.

The Blues have reached the final of the League Cup on three consecutive occasions and are now just two games away from doing so once again, with London rivals West Ham the next obstacle to overcome.

Emma Hayes's side faced the Hammers four times in the calendar year of 2022, prevailing in all four meetings, scoring 13 goals in the process.

However the east London side have improved vastly under Paul Konchesky and Hayes is expecting no free ticket to the next round come Thursday night.

‘They’ve kept a few clean sheets in a row, what a performance on Sunday against Arsenal. They defended their box extremely well. Paul has done a great job there, they have a tonne of threat on the transition and at set-pieces.

‘Our team are clear about how hard it will be to score a goal against them tomorrow. We know there is a semi-final on the line, and we have to be up for this!’ Emma added.

‘It is a team effort. I want to see pride in every single defensive action tomorrow night because sometimes you can switch off defensively, thinking too much about our attacking play. Not conceding goals should be on our mind and hopefully tomorrow it will be.’

Konchesky, formerly a player of West Ham, Fulham and Liverpool, is the coach in the dug-out for the hosts and our head coach heaped praise on him for the job he is doing.

‘I knew that he needed time, but he has an underdog mentality with that group and they know he is punching hard for him and the club. We will not underestimate them, and not at their home. It will be at tough slog tomorrow night.’