Lucy Bronze headed a second-half winner as Chelsea clinched their sixth successive Women's Super League title with a 1-0 victory at Manchester United.
The England right-back finally broke the deadlock in a pulsating contest at Leigh Sports Village when she glanced a corner past the impressive Phallon Tullis-Joyce 16 minutes from time.
Arsenal’s defeat by Aston Villa earlier on Wednesday had opened the door for the Blues to wrap up yet another league success, their eighth in 10 seasons and a first under new manager Sonia Bompastor.
Yet with third-placed United needing points to secure Champions League qualification, it proved a tough task for a side still reeling from their European humiliation at the hands of Barcelona last weekend.
Despite a draw actually suiting both sides, neither showed any intention of playing for one.
In the end it fell to veteran Bronze, a previous title-winner with Manchester City and Liverpool, to finish the job, handing Bompastor’s side an unassailable nine-point lead at the top with two games to play.
Arsenal's slim hopes were ended after they were stunned 5-2 by Aston Villa.
Defeat at Villa Park was only the Gunners’ third in the WSL this season, but they were left nine points adrift of the leaders with two games to play.
Former Arsenal player Jordan Nobbs came back to haunt her old side after rounding off a swift counter-attack on the half-hour mark before Kirsty Hanson doubled their advantage on the cusp of half-time with a stunning strike.
Chasity Grant and Rachel Daly piled more misery on the Champions League finalists after the break before two goals in three minutes from Stina Blackstenius and Alessia Russo cut the deficit.
Grant then added her second to wrap up a third straight league victory for Villa.
That meant Sonia Bompastor's side needed just a point against Manchester United but Bronze secured all three.
"We obviously knew a draw was good enough, we wanted to be unbeaten and before the game we wanted to keep a clean sheet and it’s really nice to score the goal and get the win as well," Bronze told Sky Sports.
"It makes it feel a lot better to celebrate being champions when you win a game.
"Although we’ve won the league tonight we know we’ve still got two games [left], we want to win those games and be unbeaten all season."
Bompastor hailed the title as a "great achievement", adding on Sky Sports: "It probably feels a bit unreal because we were not expecting Arsenal to drop points tonight, but being able to bounce back after the game on Sunday and win against a big team like United feels amazing.
"Starting the season I was not expecting us to be in the position to achieve this with two games left. I knew we would have to fight until the end."
Asked what her biggest challenge had been this season, Bompastor joked: "The biggest challenge is maybe my English!
"This league is really competitive so for us to still be unbeaten is something really good. It's not easy to come as a new manager to a new country to adjust to a new league. I learned a lot and had a great bunch of players and a great staff as well.
"We had the right mindset from the beginning of the season until the end."
