Chelsea beat Leicester City to go one point behind Women’s Super League leaders Manchester United with one game less.
The Blues led 3-0 after 32 minutes thanks to goals from Guro Reiten, Erin Cuthbert and Pernille Harder.
Denmark’s Harder added a second just before half-time as Chelsea exerted more of their dominance.
Goals from Lauren James and Jelena Cankovic completed the second-half success.
The influential Harder also helped in the opener against struggling Leicester, crossing into the box only for Reiten to send a slippery finish into the bottom corner.
Cuthbert scored her 50th Chelsea goal when she stole the ball from Josie Green and rounded Leicester goalkeeper Janina Leitzig into an empty net to make it 2-0.
Chelsea show strength in depth to boost Double dream
Boss Emma Hayes has made six changes to the side that beat Everton 7-0 just three days ago, with Harder and Cuthbert starting.
In his first league start since November 2022, Harder looked keen to make up for lost time and his contribution effectively ended the game as a first-half competition.
Her brace came in 10 minutes and she provided an assist for the second game in a row. It underscored Harder’s importance to the team in a week when they were linked with a move to Bayern Munich, alongside partner and Chelsea captain Magdalena Eriksson.
For her first strike in the 32nd minute, she struck from close range after James’ shot in front of goal was parried by Leitzig.
Harder then rolled through the Leicester defense unopposed for his second.
James added the fifth in the 56th minute when she collected the ball on the right, slid into the box and then kicked a drive into the top corner.
Hayes rested Harder, James and Cuthbert for the final 25 minutes, but the Blues made it 6-0 in added time.
Cankovic shot from 18 yards out, with Leitzig only able to get the ball into the roof of his net.
Chelsea will seal a fourth consecutive league title as long as they win their three remaining matches, including a crucial encounter with third-placed London rivals Arsenal.
Manchester United have just two games left to play and 13 goals in two games has seen the Blues progress on goal difference with the leaders as well.
The two sides also face off in Sunday’s FA Cup final as they chase a double.
Leicester need focus for relegation fight
Back-to-back defeats to title-seeking Arsenal and Chelsea are not the kind of results that will define Leicester’s season.
But they will have to pull themselves together and focus on their fight against relegation.
Remy Siemsen blocked a shot and fired narrowly wide, but the penultimate rarely troubled the hosts.
The Foxes have made huge progress under Willie Kirk, given they had no points at the start of 2023. They are now two behind Reading with two games to play.
Their next game, on Sunday May 21, is at home against a West Ham side who have not won a WSL game this year and Leicester will be confident of a win to help them hold on.
