The Blues welcome our London rivals to Kingsmeadow at the weekend in an eagerly anticipated FA Cup tie, with a place in the quarter-finals at stake. The game kicks-off at 2pm UK time and can be watched live on BBC.

Hayes has decisions to make on who to select against the Gunners, with a number of players only just returning to Cobham from international duty, including Canadian pair Jessie Fleming and Kadeisha Buchanan who only arrived back today.

With that in mind, our head coach has stated that she will wait until tomorrow before picking her side for Sunday.

‘Not everyone,’ Hayes replied when asked if all the internationals had returned to Cobham. ‘The girls from Canada still aren’t back yet.

‘In fact, they should be back in the building now but ultimately we’ve got a game on Sunday, so it’s not ideal preparation [scattered returns].

‘But that just shows the challenges that face us. They’ve travelled halfway around the world and now have to get ready for a big game on Sunday.

‘The rest are all in the building though. I haven’t spoken much to the players just yet because we’ve had them coming in and doing recovery sessions, but they are all ready to train tomorrow before Sunday’s game. So we will see where we are in terms of everyone’s freshness and fitness then.

‘I can’t pick a team today. The team we pick on Sunday will be the team that is fresh to play.

‘I think that will be the case throughout every game for the rest of the season. I think everybody expects every player to play every game, but it simply just doesn’t work like that and sometimes you’re faced with big decisions to make.

‘As we sit here now, I can’t tell you what the team on Sunday will be because I don’t know yet. I haven’t had the medical reports to say who will be fit to play yet and I probably won’t know until tomorrow.

‘We’re used to it though and we will adapt. Everyone is good enough to play and what I do know though is that whatever team we put out, they will be prepared to give everything to try and get the win.’