After recording their first win of the season at the weekend, Chelsea Women will aim to claim consecutive victories when they play host to West Ham United Women on Wednesday.
The visitors, meanwhile, are looking for a response after suffering their first defeat of the Women's Super League season.
Match preview
© Reuters
Chelsea's title defence got off to a shaky start as a trip to Prenton Park resulted in a 2-1 defeat to newly-promoted Liverpool.
The opening-day defeat may have been a surprise, but Chelsea demonstrated why they have won three consecutive WSL titles, as they bounced back with a 2-0 victory over Manchester City on Sunday.
Although Man City offered a threat in an intriguing contest, Fran Kirby put her side in front before the three points were wrapped up by a Maren Mjelde penalty in the 78th minute.
While the Liverpool defeat ended a 13-game unbeaten run in the league, Chelsea will hope that the victory over Man City will be the start of another positive spell of form.
Having beaten West Ham in their previous nine competitive meetings, the Blues will certainly be confident of adding three more points to their tally on Wednesday.
© Reuters
Meanwhile, West Ham boss Paul Konchesky will know that his side have their work cut out if they are to avoid consecutive defeats.
Konchesky's tenure began with a narrow 1-0 victory over Everton on the opening weekend of the season after Lisa Evans scored what proved to be the only goal of the contest.
The Hammers may have started their campaign with three important points, however, they were quickly brought back down to earth when they played host to Manchester United on Sunday.
A valiant defensive performance kept the Red Devils at bay until half time, but within three minutes of the restart, Lucia Garcia gave United the lead before Hannah Blundell struck five minutes later to condemn West Ham to a 2-0 defeat.
After suffering their first defeat of the season, the Hammers will turn their attention to a difficult home game against the reigning WSL champions, with the visitors looking to draw inspiration from the fact that they finished last season with three wins from their final five away league games.
Team News
© Reuters
Chelsea could still be without the services of Pernille Harder, who has missed the opening two games due to a hamstring injury.
Jessie Fleming and Maren Mjelde were brought into the side for Sunday's win over Man City, and the pair are expected to retain their places, with Emma Hayes set to name an unchanged lineup.
After finishing last term as WSL top scorer, Sam Kerr will look to open her account for the current season when she leads the line on Wednesday.
As for West Ham, they will operate with a back three that is expected to contain Kate Longhurst, Lucy Parker and Hawa Cissoko.
Despite using the same starting lineup for the first two matches, Konchesky could be tempted to bring Abbey-Leigh Stringer into the starting lineup.
Meanwhile, Evans will retain her place in the frontline as she looks to add to the goal that she scored in the win over Everton.
Chelsea Women possible starting lineup:
Berger; Bright, Buchanan, Eriksson; Fleming, Cuthbert, Mjelde, Reiten; James, Kirby, Kerr
West Ham United Women possible starting lineup:
Arnold; Longhurst, Parker, Cissoko; Smith, Stringer, Ziu, Brynjarsdottir, Shimizu; Asseyi, Smith
We say: Chelsea Women 3-1 West Ham United Women
Chelsea faced the Hammers on three occasions last season, winning all three matches by a combined 10-3 scoreline, and we think that the Blues will claim another comfortable victory over West Ham on Wednesday.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
