Sjoeke Nusken scored twice as Chelsea equalled the record for consecutive wins at the start of a Barclays Women’s Super League season as the leaders earned a 4-2 victory over Brighton.

The Blues matched Arsenal’s feat from the 2018/19 campaign of winning their first nine matches as they maintained their perfect record under Sonia Bompastor and their five-point lead over Manchester City at the top of the table.

The Seagulls have dropped to fourth and will rue spurning a number of opportunities to earn at least a point in what was a remarkably open encounter at Kingsmeadow.

Some sloppiness at the back almost led to Brighton taking a shock lead in the eighth minute as Nikita Parris was denied by Blues goalkeeper Hannah Hampton before Jelena Cankovic’s follow-up was cleared off the line by Nathalie Bjorn.

The Seagulls continued to threaten with Parris shooting wastefully wide before Hampton had to produce an excellent save to keep out Jorelyn Karabali’s header from Marisa Olislagers’ corner.

Having missed all those chances, Brighton presented Chelsea with the lead in the 35th minute when Poppy Pattinson was caught in her own area by Nusken who managed to squeeze the ball over the line despite Guro Bergsvand’s best efforts.

The Seagulls almost levelled straight away when Olislagers’ superb cross picked out Kiko Seike whose header produced another superb save from Hampton.

The Blues were then handed another gift in the 40th minute when Baggaley lost the ball in her own six-yard box to Aggie Beever-Jones, who gratefully tapped into an empty net.

However, Brighton were back in the game two minutes before half-time as Parris rolled the ball across for Cankovic who guided in a superb finish to strike against her old club.

Five minutes after the restart, a careless clearance by Hampton went straight to Seike who then let off the England international by scuffing a tentative effort against her.

Within a minute, Chelsea had restored their two-goal cushion when a superb pass by Catarina Macario picked out Lucy Bronze and although Baggaley denied her, the rebound ran in off Johanna Rytting Kaneryd.

But the hosts gave Brighton a route back into the game again after 71 minutes when Hampton’s clearance was charged down by Michelle Agyemang and the ball fell for Seike who this time took full advantage.

The chances kept coming as Mayra Ramirez’s header from Guro Reiten’s corner deflected off Carabali and hit the post.

Seike then passed up a golden chance to earn the visitors a point with six minutes remaining when she was yet again denied by Hampton after being put through by Agyemang.

Finally, Chelsea put the match to bed in stoppage time as Macario’s corner was flicked in by Nusken at the near post.