BIRMINGHAM, England, March 23 (Reuters) - Manchester United ( MANU ) hammered hapless Aston Villa 4-0 in the Women's Super League on Sunday while Erin Cuthbert's stoppage-time winner for Chelsea against Manchester City kept the Londoners comfortably clear at the top of the table.

With five of the 22 league games left to play, Chelsea are in pole position on 47 points, eight ahead of Arsenal in second and third-placed Manchester United ( MANU ), and 15 ahead of Manchester City, who are fourth.

Manchester United ( MANU ) went into Sunday's late kickoff knowing they needed a win to stay in touch with the top two, and Norwegian striker Elisabeth Terland did her best to ease their nerves with two goals in the opening 31 minutes.

Grace Clinton added a third on the stroke of halftime and Leah Galton grabbed a fourth after the break as United cruised to a victory that kept their title hopes alive following Arsenal's 4-0 thrashing of Liverpool on Saturday.

Earlier in the afternoon, Chelsea came storming back from a goal down as they faced Manchester City for the third game in a row, with Scotland international Cuthbert netting a diving header to snatch all three points for the Londoners.

Chelsea opened the trio of games with a 2-1 win in the League Cup final on March 15 before City handed them a 2-0 defeat in their Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday, the first loss for the Blues under French coach Sonia Bompastor, who was appointed as successor to Emma Hayes last May.

Brazilian attacker Kerolin scored her first goal for City to give them the lead in the 32nd minute on Sunday, but Aggie Beever-Jones equalised for Chelsea and though City keeper Khiara Keating pulled off some superb saves, Cuthbert finally got the better of her in the first minute of stoppage time to secure the win.

In London, West Ham United grabbed a 2-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur to leap-frog them in the standings and move up to eighth on 18 points, one ahead of Spurs.

At the other end of the table, 10th-place Leicester City gave themselves a much-needed boost with a 3-2 win over Brighton & Hove Albion.

Leicester have 15 points, five above Aston Villa and six ahead of Crystal Palace, who remain bottom in the relegation spot after a 3-0 defeat by Everton on Saturday.

(Reporting by Philip O'Connor Editing by Toby Davis)