Michael Essien scored twice on Saturday as Chelsea romped to a 4-0 win over Wolves to lead the Premier League by five points, while Arsenal tumbled 1-0 at Sunderland.
Liverpool and Manchester City fell further out of contention after a 2-2 draw.
Goals by Florent Malouda and Essien put injury-hit Chelsea 3-0 up against Wolverhampton Wanderers inside the first 22 minutes, before Joe Cole scored his first goal in 13 months in the second half.
The result meant that Chelsea have won all seven of their home games and haven’t conceded a goal at Stamford Bridge since the opening match of the season against Hull City.
Darren Bent scored a 71st-minute winner for Sunderland in a surprise victory over Arsenal, who had won six of their previous seven league games, but were left on 25 points from 12 games.
While Liverpool and Manchester City shared a point each at Anfield, the result did not help either team’s chances of catching Chelsea in the title race.
Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel, who had a header acrobatically saved by goalkeeper Shay Given in the first half, turned home a free-kick by Steven Gerrard in the 50th minute for his first goal for the club.
Beaten to the ball by Skrtel for the Liverpool goal, Adebayor was left unmarked by the Slovakia defender and was allowed a free header from a 69th-minute corner to score the equalizer.
Stephen Ireland was also left unmarked to prod home Shaun Wright-Phillips’ pass and put City ahead in the 76th minute, but Yossi Benayoun made it 2-2 seconds later from close range after good work by David Ngog.
Aston Villa came from a goal down to draw 1-1 at Burnley where they have not won in 24 visits dating back to 1936.
Steven Caldwell gave Burnley a ninth-minute lead at Turf Moor, only for Emile Heskey to equalize in the 86th minute.
Lee Bowyer scored Birmingham City’s 16th-minute winner in a 1-0 victory over Fulham at St Andrews and there was a six-goal thriller between Hull City and West Ham United.
Visitors West Ham went two goals up in the first 11 minutes through Guillermo Franco and Jack Collison, only for Hull to hit back three times to lead at halftime. Jimmy Bullard’s free-kick was deflected in, Kamil Zayatte made it 2-2 and Bullard scored his first goal for Hull from the penalty spot after Julien Faubert had fouled Craig Fagan.
Hull’s Brendan Mendy was sent off in the 54th minute and Manuel Da Costa scored the Irons’ equalizer in the 69th minute.
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