London, Dec 17 (DPA) Chelsea restored their three-point lead at the top of the English Premier League after a hard-fought 2-1 win over bottom side Portsmouth.
A second-half penalty from Frank Lampard secured all three points for the home side Wednesday, reopening the gap between themselves and Manchester United at the top.
Arsenal lost valuable ground on the leaders, though, as they were held to a 1-1 draw at Burnley, but Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool moved up to fifth and sixth with home wins.
Nicolas Anelka put Chelsea ahead after 23 minutes, but the Stamford Bridge crowd were stunned when Frederic Piquionne smashed in the equaliser six minutes into the second half.
But 11 minutes from time, Marc Wilson fouled Branislav Ivanovic and Lampard converted the penalty, much to the relief of manager Carlo Ancelotti, whose side had not won in four matches before Wednesday.
“We lost our composure for 15 minutes (after Portsmouth’s goal) and for that period, it was difficult,” he said. “But we deserved to win the game. I don’t know why we’re losing that composure.
“It was important to return to winning ways. We did that. We did a good job, not a beautiful job.”
On a bitterly cold night, Cesc Fabregas gave Arsenal a welcome early lead at the Emirates Stadium but the Spaniard went off injured, Andre Bikey was fouled by Thomas Vermaelen and Graham Alexander scored from the spot to snatch a point.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was upset at not capitalising on his side’s win at Liverpool Sunday.
“I always wanted six points (from the two games),” he said. “Really I expected more to drop two points at Liverpool than here but I believe Burnley had a very good time tonight. They did not have one moment when they lost focus.”
At White Hart Lane, two goals from Niko Kranjcar and one by Jermain Defoe helped Tottenham got the better of big-spending Manchester City with an impressive 3-0 win.
Spurs had been shocked 1-0 at home by Wolves at the weekend and manager Harry Redknapp was pleased with the way his side bounced back.
“Tonight we were the better side, there’s no disputing that,” the Tottenham manager said.
“It was very important to win. We had a blip against Wolves on Saturday. It goes to show you there are no easy games. You’ve got to keep picking up points and they are not easy to come by.”
And a nervy Liverpool side gained some respite from a recent poor run as they beat Wigan 2-1, thanks to goals from David Ngog and Fernando Torres, with Charles N’Zogbia scoring a late consolation for the visitors.
“It does not matter if we couldn’t score more goals and be more relaxed in the second half but, at the end of the day, three points is key,” Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez said.
“We needed to get these three points and be ready for the next game. We are thinking about one game at a time so now Portsmouth is the target.”
Ngog, starting the match in place of Torres, gave them the lead on nine minutes and Torres came off the bench to score the second, lifting them up to sixth, three points behind Tottenham.
The victory came on the 50th anniversary of the start of the reign of Liverpool’s most famous manager, Bill Shankly.
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