Women’s Super League leaders Chelsea needed an 82nd-minute Sarah Mayling own goal to see off Aston Villa 1-0 at Villa Park.

Villa came agonisingly close to opening the scoring in the second half when Kirsty Hanson crashed an effort off the crossbar and it looked like they would stop the reigning champions from scoring for the first time this campaign.

But, four minutes after England midfielder Keira Walsh was brought on to make her Chelsea debut, Mayling diverted Mayra Ramirez’s cross into her own goal to gift the Blues a 12th victory in 13 WSL games.

The first chance of the game fell to Villa when Hannah Hampton scuffed a clearance straight into the path of Gabi Nunes but the Chelsea goalkeeper made amends to stop the chipped effort from going in.

It took 16 minutes for the visitors to make their impression on the contest as Wieke Kaptein set up Lauren James who saw her goalbound effort blocked behind by Lucy Parker and Nathalie Bjorn headed marginally over from the resulting corner.

Chelsea showed flashes of their brilliance in an otherwise low-key first period, with Millie Bright glancing a ball in across the face of goal but no one was on hand to tap home.

Villa were more than holding their own against the league leaders though and had a sight of goal when the ball fell for Hanson inside the penalty area but her shot was inadvertently blocked by team-mate Rachel Daly.

Chelsea failed to test goalkeeper Sabrina D’Angelo throughout the first 45, with Lauren James’ effort from outside the area flying harmlessly wide of the goal.

D’Angelo was a bystander in the Villa goal up until the 61st minute when she was tested twice in the space of a minute to keep out two long-distance shots from Catarina Macario.

Villa came within inches of opening the scoring when Hanson latched on to a long ball over the top but she was denied by the brilliance of Hampton, who got the slightest of fingertips on the ball to send it on to the crossbar and away from danger.

Chelsea started to up the tempo as they went in search of a winner with substitute Sjoeke Nusken testing the palms of D’Angelo.

Sonia Bompastor brought on deadline day signing Walsh, who returned to the WSL after a two-and-a-half trophy-laden years with Barcelona.

And soon after Chelsea were finally ahead. Ramirez’s surging run opened up the Villa defence and she sent a ball across the face of goal aiming for Maika Hamano but Mayling got there before her to inadvertently roll into her own goal.