Chelsea boss Emma Hayes addressed the media following her sides 3-0 win over Aston Villa which saw them return to the summit of the Barclays Women’s Super League table.

The Blues sit top of the league with a +2 Goal Difference over Manchester City, as goals from Aggie Beever-Jones, Maika Hamano and Kadeisha Buchanan aided to see off a ten-player Villa side on Wednesday evening.

A notable statistic amidst the performance was Chelsea’a staggering thirteen corners, of which only one resulted in a goal- Catarina Macario put the ball on a plate for Kadeisha Buchanan to plant her header home just after the hour. Chelsea fans would’ve wanted a better hit rate than just one from thirteen, something that Emma Hayes reflected on post-match.

“We had one off the line in the second half from Soph (Sophie Ingle). When you have that many, because they are in a five back, they congest the central zones and the spaces within the back stick.

I thought Cat’s (Macario) delivery was excellent, I thought we hit the right areas. It’s always about the first contact, about keeping it alive for the second phases, but Aston Villa did a really good job and I thought the young keeper played well tonight in defending that area.”

One of the many unique things about this particular Chelsea season, is the cyclical use of the captains armband in the absence of Millie Bright and Sam Kerr. Niamh Charles, Sophie Ingle and Erin Cuthbert all donned the armband at some stage either against Aston Villa on the occassion, or throughout the campaign as a whole.

Touching on the leadership team briefly, Hayes added, “From Niamh, to Sophie and Erin, they’ve always done a good job in taking it in turns at the club and it’s something for us, that we’re comfortable passing around ourselves.”

Further packing on the praise for Cuthbert, Hayes expressed “She wears her heart on her sleeve, she leads by example. She is someone who is wanting to grow into the job and take the responsibilities.

It’s not just showing up, training, playing in games, it’s about learning and she is a good learner. That’s one of the reasons why it stands out, for me.”

Another standout performer on the night was teenager, Maika Hamano, who grabbed her first Chelsea goal in her first start for the club, tapping home Macario’s low centre.

The nineteen year old has had to wait for her chance in Chelsea blue, but impressed in the spring air at Kingsmeadow, a performance that certainly left her manager proud.

“I think she put in a super performance, for someone who hasn’t played a lot of football, she showed a tremendous amount of energy. I’ve said it before, she’s going to be a really great player for Chelsea’s future but she can also do it in Chelsea’s present. The squad are so, so happy for her, she is a lovely individual.”

The Blues know all to well about facing ten players, after their famous draw up at Manchester City very early in the season, in which the fixture concluded with them facing just the nine opponents. It was kept at ten versus eleven today after Anna Leat’s very early dismissal, but Hayes remained coy on what she changed from the sidelines.

“Different spaces open up. So the spaces were in the half spaces on the switches so with Fran Kirby on one side. but we didn’t have a player filling that because Sjoeke [Nüsken] was playing higher, so we just made an adjustment on that part.

That is purely because there is one extra player and you have to determine where the overload then becomes because the five at the back doesn’t change, so when we did that we could adapt to that.

The Chelsea boss continued, “It’s all about on the ball, you have to be patient. I think second half we went direct and weren’t too patient, but in the first half we were a little more patient.

The challenges when you play against ten can be to hurry to try and do something, when maybe that extra pass or not playing the first pass forward is the things I learn from playing against a team playing a player less.”

Finally, Hayes rounded off with the inevitable question surrounding her sides clash with Barcelona on Saturday in the first leg of the UEFA Women’s Champions League Semi Finals.

It’s a re-run of last years fixture at this stage, to which the Blues were edged by their Catalan counterparts. Irregardless of any previous results, Hayes is looking forward to the encounter.

“I look forward to every game, no matter the opponent. Of course, everyone wants to be in a Champions League semi final, everybody wants to play.

We don’t get too much time to think about it. We had to think about tonight and we had to try and win a league first, so we can now switch it to rest first, then think about Friday and what we need to deliver in training to then go out there and play the first half of two legs.”

Chelsea will travel to Barcelona this Saturday, as they gear up to face Barcelona at Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, with proceedings heading underway at 12:30 GST.