Chelsea players celebrate Sjoeke Nusken’s second goal in the 3-1 victory over Arsenal at Stamford Bridge [Pedro Soares/SPP]

NINE days on from losing a six-pointer to Chelsea, Arsenal will dust themselves down and go again on Sunday evening with a visit to Aston Villa – but they do so with their Women’s Super League title tilt sorely dented.

A win under the lights at Stamford Bridge last week would have seen the Gunners pull level with Emma Hayes’ defending champions with six games to go.

Instead, they hit the business end of the season six points adrift of both Chelsea and Manchester City.

How much attention head coach Jonas Eidevall has given the league table in recent days is anyone’s guess. On Friday night, the Swede suggested he had other things on his mind.

“This game has been taking 100 per cent of my focus, before, during and now after,” he said in the wake of the 3-1 defeat. “The league table is not where my energy goes right now.”

Yet it is hard to imagine he did not know how different the top of the WSL tree would have looked this weekend had he departed Fulham with three points.

Mid-table Villa offer a chance to regain momentum, but even though they were easily dispatched 4-0 in the Continental Cup semi-final earlier this month, Carla Ward’s side still pose a test.

On a positive note, that league cup run means the chance of silverware has not completely slipped from Arsenal’s hands.

To retain that title, though, the Gunners will need to really sock it to fellow finalists Chelsea when the two London rivals face off at the end of March.

They managed it in last season’s showpiece at Selhurst Park and more recently in the WSL when they thumped the Blues 4-1 at the Emirates. But Friday’s return was far less edifying for Arsenal’s massive following of away fans, their players and Eidevall.

“I said it before the game, the performance that Chelsea had in December was one that really hurt them,” Eidevall said. “And if there was one thing that was absolutely given, it was they were going to come out trying to prove that performance was wrong. We were prepared for that, but didn’t deal with that well enough.”

Arsenal did not exactly start well off the pitch either. A clash of sock colours caused a delay to kick-off of almost half an hour while new ones were hurriedly bought from the stadium megastore and tape applied to block out Chelsea’s lion crest.

Rather than cause disgruntlement, a Chelsea Women’s club-record crowd of almost 33,000 seemed to revel in the hold-up as the stadium DJ ramped up the volume and the tunes to create a genuinely electric atmosphere.

But it was the hosts rather than Arsenal who lapped it up, a late own goal from Cat Macario offering mere consolation after an early opener from the almost unplayable Lauren James and two scruffy goals from Sjoeke Nusken had put Chelsea in the driving seat with barely half an hour played.

“She scored a goal off her arse,” chuckled Hayes afterwards.

“The jammiest, but huge credit for being in the right place at the right time. Tonight’s performance will have given the team a lot of courage.”

Arsenal will look to take theirs to Villa Park on Sunday in a 6.45pm kick-off to be shown live on Sky.