Chelsea line up against Birmingham City on Wednesday night, eager to get on with the football after the disappointment of the weekend’s storm cancellation in Manchester.

The Blues face a Birmingham team who Birmingham City have lost five of their six Barclays FA Women’s Super League games on the road this season, failing to score in every defeat.

But that certainly doesn’t mean manager Emma Hayes is taking anything for granted in the intensive preparation that has been taking place all week at the Cobham training ground.

“These are the games that will make the difference about where we are going to finish in the league,” she said, calling for higher levels of consistency in the team’s performance. “Our team, our squad and our goals are all aligned, and it is so important at this stage of the season that everybody in our group is collectively pushing.”

The weekend’s postponement against Man U (in common with every other WSL fixture on Sunday) because of Storm Ciara means that Chelsea Women last played 10 days ago, in the memorable 8-0 drubbing of West Ham United at home.

Birmingham sit third from bottom on seven points, and have not played since Sunday January 26 as their fixtures against Liverpool and Brighton were postponed. Their last action was in the Women’s FA Cup, when they beat Championship side Sheffield United 3-0, with a brace from Harriet Scott and a goal from Lucy Staniforth.

Interestingly, the Blues failed to win any of their first seven FA Women’s Super League games against Birmingham, but Chelsea have won eight of their most recent 11 against City.

Birmingham have the distinction of being the last team to beat Chelsea in the Women’s Super League, winning 3-2 in January 2019. Since then the Blues have been unbeaten for over a calendar year in the competition, breaking their club record for the most successive home victories in the WSL, with seven straight wins. Only two clubs have gone on longer runs in the league – Arsenal (three occasions) and Man City (two occasions).