As yet another international interruption dislocates an already fractured season, Chelsea Women seem to have steadied the ship after coming from behind to beat London rivals West Ham at Kingsmeadow.

A 3-1 victory means the Blues are level top of the Women’s Super League, although they have played one match more than rivals Arsenal, Man U and Villa, who have yet to slip up. Chelsea’s opening-day defeat to Liverpool could yet come back to haunt them at the tail end of the season.

Chelsea’s captain, Magda Eriksson – pictured above with manager Emma Hayes – was presented with a framed shirt to mark 150 appearances ahead of Wednesday night’s league tie.

The Blues started poorly, and found themselves 1-0 down within three minutes when the Hammers won the first corner of the game, and lofty captain Dagny Brynjarsdottir headed home. It wasn’t until five minutes before the interval that Fran Kirby lifted the ball into the West Ham net to level and finally make all the home pressure count.

Sam Kerr put Chelsea ahead on 58 minutes, sneaking a close-quarters goal after a few seconds of pinball in the West Ham area, with Millie Bright putting the result beyond doubt four minutes later with a well-taken header.

There was still time for Lauren James, on as sub for Kirby after 63 minutes, to see her tame penalty kick saved by Mackenzie Arnold. All in all, though, it was a deserved win for Chelsea.

“We grew into the game; it should have been more goals but it wasn’t,” said Hayes, who gave debuts to defender Eve Perisset and the Czech midfielder Katerina Svitkova, both of whom impressed. Perisset took many of Chelsea’s corners, while Svitkova demonstrated physical strength as well as skill.

There was a moving tribute ahead of the game to groundsman Dave McKnight, 62, who died suddenly after being taken ill during the Blues’ weekend game against Manchester City. Both teams stood around the centre circle for a minute’s silence… and were joined by all the ground staff, left, on the pitch.

There’s now a yawning gap until the next league game – away to Everton on October 16.