Chelsea Women captain Magdalena Eriksson announced earlier this week that she will be leaving Kingsmeadow at the end of this season, along with Pernille Harder, calling time on a long and illustrious Blues career.

It was Eriksson’s close-range finish which completed the scoring in Chelsea’s 2-0 win over Arsenal, which maintained our two-point lead at the top of the Women’s Super League table, guaranteeing that another win in our last game against Reading next week will crown us champions.

However, the obvious joy at such an important win was tempered at the end by the passionate farewells for Eriksson and Harder, as the Kingsmeadow crowd gave them a fine send off after the final whistle.

‘I’m really happy that we won but I’m really sad that we’re losing two amazing people. That’s how I felt at the end of the game,’ explained Emma Hayes.

‘They’ve had amazing years here, an amazing time here, they’re not going to be here and we’ve had a chance to replace them with something different – not the same as them, because you can’t do that.

‘If there’s going to be a separation they’d want nothing more than for Chelsea to continue to thrive. I respect them both so much as people that I would never say a negative word about it. I’m proud of them and I wish them well.’

All of that meant there could have been few more popular names on the scoresheet at Kingsmeadow today than Eriksson’s, leaving Hayes delighted that the centre-back could say goodbye in the perfect way after seeing how much she has contributed to the club's success over the years.

‘I just thought “this is so fitting, of course she scored today”. Everybody wanted that fairytale for her. I don’t want to take anything away from P but Mags has been our captain, our leader. I know the hard work that’s gone on behind the scenes to get the team to where it is and hard conversations we’ve had to have.

‘When you look on the pitch, everyone sees 11 people, all I see is the years of work in the background. The meetings, the analysis, the arguments, the disagreements, the good times, the horrible times, the moments when you’re sick of looking at each other as a team.

‘It’s all of those things, so when they come off, in these moments, this team has a habit of peaking right when it matters. Coming together right when it matters. Magda sort of epitomises that at the very top.

‘But I should say Millie too, Maren too. There’s three very senior leaders in our team so it’s important now the baton’s going to be passed on to those players because Magda’s done a tremendous job of leading us with them.’

At least it seems the future of Chelsea Women is in safe hands despite those departures and, with one fixture left this season, Eriksson and Harder’s farewell could yet get even better, if they leave the Blues as champions of England once again.