-
Chelsea's Drogba celebrates - Source: Reuters -
Related
Didier Drogba scored twice to lift Chelsea to a 4-1 victory over West Ham United on Sunday and back to the top of the Premier League while Arsenal shadowed them with a last-gasp victory at Hull City.
A fortnight after a shock 4-2 defeat by Manchester City at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea rediscovered their form and with Florent Malouda enjoying one of his best games for the club ended up handsome winners.
Drogba's double and one for Malouda killed off relegation-threatened West Ham who were level at halftime after former Chelsea man Scott Parker cancelled out Alex's header.
Chelsea have 64 points from 29 games and lead Arsenal on goal difference after the Gunners stole a 2-1 victory at 10-man Hull through Nicklas Bendtner's stoppage-time winner.
Champions Manchester United, who host Fulham on Sunday, have 63 points.
Two goals by Roman Pavlyuchenko helped fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur boost their push for Champions League qualification with a 3-1 home defeat of Blackburn Rovers.
Aston Villa, one of Tottenham's rivals for fourth spot, lost ground with a 0-0 draw at Stoke City. Fifth-placed Manchester City visit Sunderland on Sunday.
Burnley look increasingly likely to make a quick return to the Championship (second division) after a morale-sapping 2-1 home defeat against fellow strugglers Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Bolton Wanderers thrashed Wigan Athletic 4-0 and Birmingham City recovered a two-goal deficit to draw 2-2 with Everton.
Commanding Performance
Chelsea needed a commanding performance as they looked forward to welcoming former manager Jose Mourinho back to Stamford Bridge on Tuesday when they look to overturn a 2-1 deficit against Inter Milan in the Champions League.
Carlo Ancelotti's side produced just that to outclass a West Ham side, managed by former Chelsea favourite Gianfranco Zola, who hung on gamely for a while after Parker rifled in a superb equaliser.
Frenchman Malouda, in dazzling form down the left wing, provided the cross for Alex to score the opener and set up Drogba to head Chelsea back in front before his own cool finish made it 3-1.
Drogba bagged his second in the final minute but for Ancelotti it was Malouda's spark which pleased him most.
"He was the best player on the pitch today and scored a fantastic goal," Ancelotti told Sky Sports.
"He set up the first two goals and he is in a very good moment and I want to use him on Tuesday."
While the title race looks set to go to the wire, the scrap for fourth place is equally intriguing with Tottenham in pole position on 52 points, three more than Manchester City who have two games in hand.
Jermain Defoe grabbed his 23rd goal of the season for Tottenham but Russian Pavlyuchenko is the man of the moment with eight goals in six appearances.
"Pavlyuchenko is in a tremendous run of form and if he can keep doing that until the end of the season we can get where we want to get, he's been great for us," said manager Harry Redknapp.
