JOIN USChelsea ended a five-match run without a win when they beat Bolton Wanderers 3-0 in the Premier League on Saturday to ease some of the pressure on under-fire coach Andre Villas-Boas.
The future of the 34-year-old Portuguese has come under intense scrutiny after a poor run of results and widespread reports of dressing room unrest. However goals from David Luiz, who curled in the opener after 48 minutes, a 61st minute close-range Didier Drogba header and a 79th minute volley from Frank Lampard, who struck his 150th career league goal, lifted some of the gloom surrounding Stamford Bridge in recent weeks.
The result lifted Chelsea to fourth place in the table, 14 points behind leaders Manchester City. With second-placed Manchester United and third placed Tottenham Hotspur not playing until Sunday, City lead the table with 60 points, followed by United on 58, Spurs on 53 and Chelsea on 46.
Newcastle United's hopes of a top four finish took a knock as they were held 2-2 at home by Wolverhampton Wanderers. They raced into a two-goal lead with goals from Papiss Demba Cisse and an edge-of-the-box screamer from Jonas Gutierrez after 18 minutes but Wolves, in Terry Connor's first match as caretaker manager since Mick McCarthy was sacked this month, fought back with goals by Matt Jarvis and Kevin Doyle to edge out of the relegation zone.
Fulham pushed their former boss Mark Hughes, now managing their West London neighbours Queens Park Rangers, closer to the bottom three with a 1-0 win at Loftus Road where Pavel Pogrebnyak scored the only goal after seven minutes.
Mali international Samba Diakite was sent off on his QPR debut, the fifth QPR player sent off at home this season. They slipped to 17th on 21 points, the same number as Blackburn and only one more than Bolton and bottom of the table Wigan Athletic who drew 0-0 at home to Aston Villa. West Bromwich Albion followed up their 5-1 win over Wolves two weeks ago with a 4-0 win over Sunderland and now look safe in 12th place.
On Sunday Manchester United travel to Norwich City, Arsenal are at home to Spurs in the North London derby and Stoke City play Swansea City.