Albion leapfrog Hammers after goals from Whelan and Kaagman
and close-range effort.
As West Ham pushed for an equaliser, they were hit by a sucker punch as Arnold failed to clear her lines and presented Kaagman with an open goal to put the game beyond doubt late on.
Brighton manager Hope Powell said: “We had attitude, effort and application. We were quite resilient at the end in the latter stages of the game. I’ve said it before, we rarely get an early goal so for us, it was a good thing as it settled us and meant they were chasing.
“They’re the ones who have to come out and try and find something and that just gave us confidence very early on.
“In the second half, we were a bit too deep. But we wereresilient, organised and dedicated and got rewarded for being alert and putting the ball in the back of the net.
“I felt that we should’ve scored more goals, so I’m a bit disappointed that sometimes we make it a little bit hard for ourselves.
“Sometimes we gave the ball away a bit too cheaply but when you haven’t got the ball you’ve got to do the dirty bit which is work hard. I think we did that well today.
“If we don’t have the ball but we win, I’m happy, and I’m delighted with the three points.”
Brighton: (4-4-1-1): Katie Startup; Emma Koivisto, Danique Kerkdijk, Maya Le Tissier; Aileen Whelan; Megan Connolly, Inessa Kaagman; Ellie Brazil; Emma Kullberg, Danielle Carter; Victoria Williams.