Liverpool boss Matt Beard admits his side’s FA Women’s Super League title aspirations would have been over had they not beaten Chelsea.
Their 2-0 victory on Saturday moved Liverpool to within two points of the Blues and Birmingham City at the top of the table.
Goals from Gemma Davison and Lucy Bronze also secured the Reds' third win in four league games and Beard insists his defending champions will fight until the end to hold onto their crown.
Liverpool's Corina Schroder holds off Chelsea's Ana Borges
“We knew that if we didn’t win we were probably out of the Europe race and out of the title chase,” he said.
“If you focus well and train well you’re going to go into the game with the right mentality, and to be fair to the players they’ve responded to that and the performance was fantastic.
“We’re not going to give it up. We worked incredibly hard last year to win that title, and that showed in the players’ performance.”
Manchester City will move level with Liverpool should they overcome Bristol Academy on Monday.
In FA WSL2, table toppers Sunderland maintained their four point lead over Doncaster Rovers Belles with a comfortable 4-0 win against Millwall Lionesses.
Captain Steph Bannon opened the scoring just before half-time for the Lady Black Cats before Sophie Williams, Keira Ramshaw and Rachel Furness added further goals after the break.
But manager Mick Mulhern insists his players will not get carried away with a trip to third place Reading next on their agenda.
Sunderland boss Mick Mulhern
“We've got some tricky fixtures coming up, including Reading, who I thought along with Doncaster, would probably be the main threat to us,” Mulhern said.
“I don’t like using the cliché 'one game at a time', but it really is that. We'll not get ahead of ourselves.
“I was absolutely delighted with the performance. There were things we've been working at over the last couple of weeks in training that started to come out.
“As the game progressed we started to work for each other and we started to play much better because of it.”
Elsewhere, Sue Smith’s hat-trick ensured the Doncaster Rovers Belles returned to winning ways - following three consecutive draws - with a 7-0 triumph over London Bees to keep the pressure on Sunderland.
Reading moved to third with a 4-0 victory over Watford, Fran Kirby scoring a hat-trick, while Katie Wilkinson’s double helped Aston Villa overcome Oxford United 2-1.
Sarah Wiltshire also scored twice as Jamie Sherwood’s reign as Yeovil Town manager started with a 3-1 victory against Durham.
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