Gareth Taylor hails watershed after Manchester City end Chelsea run

It was City’s first win at Kingsmeadow since 2016. “They made it a bit of a fortress. We’ve broken that record now and we deserved it,” he said. “We played some good stuff in the first half, and in the latter stages it was a really good show of defending from the entire team.”

Hayes, for her part, was in little mood to mourn her proud three-year unbeaten home league record in Kingston. “I don’t think people will be putting it on my tombstone,” she scoffed. “Look, we all know it’s a game of tight margins. We should have had a penalty first half, but these things happen. Second half we dominated, but it was a low xG [expected goals] until the last 10 minutes of the game. Their big xG chance came off the goal. A draw would have been a fair result. But they took their chances.”

Nor was Hayes particularly bothered in the winnowing gap at the top of the able. “I just focus on the performance,” she said. “Preparation, performance, recovery. I don’t spend time looking up or down the league. It’s a waste of time. I just know we’ve dropped three points.”