Our Wednesday evening trip to West Ham (live on Sky Sports and an 8.15pm kick-off) is our game in hand over league leaders Manchester United. A win would move us two points ahead with two games to play.

However as much as beating Man United at Wembley at the weekend is an achievement to cherish, it also has potential to be a drain. It is a subject Emma Hayes has been speaking about on the eve of the trip to east London.

‘We showed once again on Sunday what winning teams look like,’ the Chelsea manager began. ‘We celebrated that, what it takes to win. We’ve just got to find another little bit in us to keep going for the last three games.

‘It would take a lot more out of you if you lose a cup final. When you win, everything feels a bit lighter, even if at the weekend I thought our brains were tired more than anything else.

‘People will assume tiredness has to do with the legs. What is so important for me is not even getting our legs fresh for tomorrow, we need to get our brains right, get our sleeping patterns right, because it is really hard to sleep off the back of games like that on Sunday.’

Hayes confirmed her squad have worked for a number of years with a sleep specialist who helps devise strategies for sleep, although she smiled that she personally had not been paying attention to those in the past week.

The full focus is now on taking three points when we meet a West Ham side that last won a game in January but drew with Liverpool last time out.

‘West Ham have probably one of the lowest budgets in the league and it's easy to comment on how much better some should do,’ notes Hayes, ‘but there's always circumstances that lead to that.

‘What I know is when you play a team that has lost that much, you should always be wary of their threats because no one likes losing that much. I'm sure Paul [Konchesky] and the players don't, and every time we play them it is a physical, tough match-up and this time we expect it to be same.

‘It's nice when I hear the players talk about the fact we don't treat any game differently,’ she added, ‘because the reality is we prepare exactly the same.

‘We don't do any less detail than we would if it was a Champions League game, or playing a top-three opponent.

‘We treat it exactly the same way. You can probably see that in the tiredness in my eyes today because I make everybody grind even harder after wins like the weekend. Everybody was in home early, up early in training the following day, as I really respect every team.’