William Gallas and Hernan Crespo scored Sunday to give Chelsea a 2-0 victory over Liverpool that restored the defending champion's Premier League lead to 15 points.
Liverpool was already 2-0 down when goalkeeper Jose Reina was sent off eight minutes from the end for pushing Chelsea's Arjen Robben in the face following a foul on Eidur Gudjohnsen. The incident sparked a flareup among players who have faced each other seven times in the last year.
Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez was furious with Robben, saying that he fell dramatically after barely being touched.
"Maybe Robben is hospital now. Maybe I need to go and see him," Benitez said sarcastically. "He dived, and it is so clear. It is crazy to see a red card for this thing."
The result meant that Chelsea completed a Premier League double over the European champion having won 4-1 at Anfield in October. The two teams had twice tied 0-0 in Champions League group games.
In Sunday's other game, Jermain Defoe scored twice to lead Tottenham to a 3-1 victory over Charlton that kept its hold on fourth place.
Having won last year's title by 12 points, Chelsea now leads by 15 with 13 games to go. It had tied its last three league and cup games in a minor slump.
"In the past few weeks we haven't been that sharp from the first whistle," Chelsea captain John Terry said. "But today we put them under a lot of pressure and it worked in our favor."
Without saying the title race was over, the centerback said it was Chelsea's to lose.
"It's in our hands and as long as we keep winning and pulling away from them there's nothing they can do," he said.
Chelsea went ahead in the 34th minute at Stamford Bridge when Ricardo Carvalho beat Steven Gerrard in the air to meet a corner from Frank Lampard and the ball dropped to Gallas, who turned the ball home.
Crespo struck the second in the 68th with a low, left footed drive past Reina after Asier Del Horno had lobbed a pass over the Liverpool defense. The Argentina striker had the ball in the net again two minutes later but it was disallowed for offside.
Near the end, Reina ran out of his area to win the ball from Gudjohnsen near the corner flag but was called for a foul. When the referee called him over to give him a yellow card, Robben made a comment and Reina pushed him in the face. That prompted the referee to show the red card.
Jerzy Dudek went on as a replacement and Luis Garcia had to leave the field so that Liverpool would be down to 10 men.
At White Hart Lane, Defoe, who hadn't scored for seven games, gave Spurs the lead in the 14th. He collected a through ball and his low shot took a deflection off defender Luke Young's knee before going in off the underside of the crossbar.
Jenas made it 2-0 four minutes before halftime when Robbie Keane sent him chasing toward goal and the midfielder shrugged off a challenge by Chris Powell to beat goalkeeper Thomas Myhre from 15m.
Marcus Bent almost halved the lead in first-half injury time with an 18m shot which thudded against the crossbar.
But Defoe added the third goal within a minute of the restart when Keane stole possession in midfield. Huddlestone played a long pass to the England striker clear, who chipped the ball over Myhre and watched it just trickle into the net.
Jerome Thomas got a goal back for Charlton 20 minutes from the end, cutting inside from the left and hitting a low shot that beat goalkeeper Paul Robinson. But the victory puts Spurs within a point of third place Liverpool and opens a four point advantage over Arsenal, which has a game in hand even after Saturday's 2-0 victory at Birmingham.
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