Lauren James stars as Chelsea cruise past Arsenal in Women's Super League title tussle at Stamford Bridge

Chelsea delivered a big blow to Arsenal in the Women’s Super League title race with a convincing 3-1 victory at Stamford Bridge.

With a kit blunder forcing The Gunners to buy black socks from the Chelsea megastore leading to a 30-minute delay to kick-off, it did not get much better for Jonas Eidevall’s side on the pitch once play finally got underway.

Lauren James broke the deadlock with a quarter of an hour played with a goal which Arsenal shot-stopper Manuela Zinsberger will not want to view back.

James latched onto Sjoeke Nusken's pass and showed brilliant footwork to engineer a strike, which Zinsberger managed to send looping into her own net after getting a big hand to the ball.

Emma Hayes saw her team double their advantage four minutes later thanks to Nusken, who reacted quickly to divert Erin Cuthbert’s strike past Zinsberger.

It was certainly Chelsea’s lucky night if their third goal was anything to go by, on a night to forget for Arsenal.

Leah Williamson's diagonal set-piece was intercepted by Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, whose effort took a hugely fortuitous ricochet past Zinsberger to leave the North Londoners 3-0 down after 32 minutes.

James was looking to rub salt into Arsenal's gaping wounds with a speculative long-range effort which rose inches over the bar and skirted the top of the net.

Eidevall would have been searching for a big response from his side, and the Swede made a triple change at the break by replacing Steph Catley, Victoria Pelova and Stina Blackstenius with Emily Fox, Frida Maanum and Alessia Russo.

The Gunners showed signs of improvement after the interval, but nowhere near enough to spark a memorable comeback, as their lingering title aspirations began to fade away.

The travelling Arsenal fans were given something to cheer, as Kim Little’s strike took a hefty deflection off Catarina Macario for an own goal.

Chelsea failed to deal with Katie McCabe’s corner into the box, and ensured Eidevall’s side had the last word on an otherwise sobering evening in West London.

Arsenal are now six points adrift of Chelsea in third with only six games remaining, while Hayes' side are three points clear of Manchester City, who are in action away at Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday.

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