Chelsea Women have bounced back from a very rare defeat in our last home match with three wins on the spin in three different competitions, all without a goal conceded.

While a week ago at Leicester in the WSL it was a comfortable 4-0 success, today at Everton in the FA Cup it was a narrow 1-0 with plenty of defending to do, as it was four days earlier in the League Cup at Manchester City.

On Merseyside after reaching the FA Cup semi-finals again, Emma Hayes reflected on a victory that was difficult to obtain.

‘We weren’t anywhere near our best and we looked like we'd had three away games in seven days,’ our manager began.

‘Real credit has to go to all the players who have played in all three games. Jess Carter was tremendous and Sjoeke Nusken, Eve Perisset and Niamh Charles had to do a lot of defending.

‘Everton created good chances and I thought they were unlucky not to get a penalty. I thought they deserved to score but credit to Zecira Musovic for the one big save she made.

‘I can't say the performance was gutsy but I thought we showed good mentality to stay in the game. Then we saw Cat Macario come into the game, bring a little bit of quality when we absolutely needed it, and that was enough.’

For the second Sunday running we were treated to a Macario goal almost straight after she had come on. It was only her second Chelsea appearance after approaching two years out with injury.

‘She's such a good player, you can see that already,’ said Hayes, ‘and it was a really good bit of play from Aggie [Beever-Jones] down the side. She found Cat in a good area and it was enough.

‘But you could tell this week has taken its toll and in terms of the effort required from everyone, I shouldn't be too hard on the team - winning 1-0 away against Everton who have one game a week.’

Hayes also gave an injury update on Nathalie Bjorn, who came off early in the game, and on Mayra Ramirez who did not complete the Man City match and was not involved today.

‘Nathalie felt a calf so I think it's fair to say there'll be something there with that, but we won't know until we get back home.

‘We just felt it was too soon today for Mayra so we left her at home and gave Aggie a start. We might have to do that from week to week where some can't play every three days but we'll see how she is when we get back.’

Now Chelsea can look forward to Tuesday morning’s FA Cup semi-final draw.

‘I say to the players that there's nothing more romantic than the FA Cup and it is a beautiful opportunity for us,’ said Hayes.