Arsenal Ladies suffered a blow in the race to capture the Women's Super League title as they lost 2-0 to Chelsea Ladies at Boreham Wood's Meadow Park on Sunday.

Defeat leaves Pedro Martinez Losa's Arsenal in fourth place in the table, five points behind leaders Chelsea.

In front of more than 1,500 supporters - twice the average attendance at Meadow Park prior to the Women's World Cup - the Blues started on top, as a nervous punch from Sari van Veenendaal landed in front of Gemma Davison who launched it back at goal.

England striker Eniola Aluko helped the ball on and though it was cleared, from the resulting corner Vicky Losada put Gilly Flaherty’s header through her own goal to put the west Londoners in front.

The Gunners tried to hit back with a one-two between Losada and Natalia allowing the latter to get clear, but her effort was tame.

Chelsea continued to control the tempo; Ji So-Yun and Drew Spence missing good chances to double the visitors' lead.

Just before half-time, Fran Kirby and Ji exchanged passes with the former narrowly firing wide.

Arsenal started the second half positively – switching to 4-3-3 after the restart – but Chelsea still had the better of the chances, with record signing Kirby narrowly firing over from 18 yards.

England’s Kirby was dangerous throughout and she drew a penalty after a lunge from Emma Mitchell, which Davison converted.

Katie Chapman had the chance to make it three, but Marta Corredera cleared off the line before Chelsea completed a confident display.

Speaking afterwards Gunners goalkeeper van Veenendaal said: “We weren’t good enough, we didn’t keep the ball long enough and in the second half, we were better, but not good enough overall.

“But it’s not over because we have three more games. Perhaps we can look at our league position after the last game, but not right now.

“We let them play too much and they had a higher level of pressure and we lost too many duels, and they created more chances.

We kept losing the ball after two or three passes and it’s difficult to create chances and to make goals when that happens. We have to learn from this game.”

Arsenal Ladies: Van Veenendaal, Mitchell, Stoney, Losada (Carla Humphrey 77), Pablos Sanchon, Carter (Jordan Nobbs 64), Corredera, Rose, Janssen, Wubben-Moy (Chioma Ubogagu 46), Bailey.