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Lauren James scored twice and Sam Kerr became a record breaker as Chelsea won at struggling Leicester City to confirm their place in next season’s Women’s Champions League.

The second-placed Blues were dominant from the start and took a 13th-minute lead when Niamh Charles dinked a cross into the box, which Australian Kerr headed in at the back post.

Her goal was a 64th in the Women’s Super League, surpassing Fran Kirby for the most by any Chelsea player in the competition.

With bottom club Leicester putting up a pedestrian display at the back, Chelsea doubled their lead in the 27th minute when James produced a bit of her trademark brilliance, whipping a no-look effort into the far corner from the edge of the area.

The England forward added a second six minutes later with a free-kick from just outside the box, chipping the ball over the wall and it went in off the underside of the crossbar.

Leicester, whose spot in a relegation play-off was confirmed by their 7-0 defeat at Arsenal in midweek, managed to score just their 11th goal of the campaign when Shannon O’Brien tucked an effort past Livia Peng after Lucy Bronze’s poor backpass.

Scoring boosted the confidence of the Foxes at the King Power Stadium, but they were unable to find a way to reduce Chelsea’s lead any further.

Changes made by Sonia Bompastor, including James and likely with an eye on next Sunday’s Women’s FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City (15:30 BST), led to the visitors producing less fluid football in the second half, but they remained firmly in control.

Although unable to win the league with one game left, a six-point gap to fourth-placed Manchester United, who were held to a 1-1 draw by Brighton on Saturday, sealed a place in Europe again next season.