• Premier League round-up

Chelsea hit seven as Arsenal slip up

Frank Lampard came in for some criticism this week and responded with a four-goal blast © Getty Images

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Bolton 0-4 Manchester United

Chelsea threw down a marker to their title rivals with a 7-1 mauling of Aston Villa, and Manchester United returned to the top of the table after victory at Bolton, but Arsenal's charge was derailed by a 1-1 draw at Birmingham.

Chelsea got their noses in front early on against Aston Villa, with Lampard stretching to slide home at the far post from Florent Malouda's ball into the box. The Blues were pegged back on the half hour, with John Carew on hand to stab home Ashley Young's deep cross.

Yuri Zhirkov has flattered to deceive in his first season in the Premier League, but was a thorn in the side of Villa and he drew a foul in the area from James Collins on the stroke of half-time which allowed Lampard to slam Chelsea back in front.

Zhirkov turned creator for Chelsea just before the hour, collecting a pass from Deco before picking out Florent Malouda who slotted home.

Chelsea earned a second penalty with Richard Dunne bringing down Zhirkov on this occasion and Lampard won the battle of wits with Brad Friedel to score. Chelsea turned on the style to make it five, with Lampard teeing up Malouda to score his second, Salomon Kalou made it six and it was seven when Lampard grabbed his fourth.

Dimitar Berbatov struck a second-half brace as Manchester United returned to the top of the league after thrashing Bolton 4-0. The champions, without star duo Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney, were under pressure following Chelsea's earlier demolition of Aston Villa and deservedly led at the break thanks to Jlloyd Samuel's own goal.

Berbatov then followed up Darren Fletcher's effort to slot home from ten yards before the Bulgarian added a second after fine work from Nani. Darron Gibson wrapped up the win to leave next weekend's crunch clash with Chelsea firmly in view.

Kevin Phillips climbed off the bench to grab a late equaliser for Birmingham against Arsenal. Samir Nasri scored a stunning goal to hand Arsenal the lead, but Phillips showed his poacher's instincts with a late strike. Abou Diaby had a goal controversially disallowed with the score at 0-0 and it proved costly.

Iain Dowie's bid to pull off the great escape at Hull is up and running with a 2-0 win over Fulham. Jimmy Bullard could be key to their survival hopes and he smashed Hull in front on 16 minutes after Jozy Altidore had been upended in the box by Chris Smalling. Craig Fagan eased the Hull nerves when climbing above Paul Konchesky to head home the Tigers' second on 49 minutes.

Mido missed a sitter from 12 yards early in the game and West Ham paid a heavy price as Stoke claimed a 1-0 win to pile more misery on Gianfranco Zola. Stoke are nothing if not predictable, but it works and from a Rory Delap long throw Ricardo Fuller picked up a loose ball before hammering the ball beyond Robert Green.

Two former Fratton Park heroes hammered another nail into Portsmouth's coffin as Peter Crouch and Niko Kranjcar scored in Tottenham's 2-0 win that kept Spurs on course for fourth place.

Gareth Bale is starting to show his class for Spurs and Crouch benefited from his delivery to nod the home side in front on 27 minutes and a second came from the boot of Kranjcar shortly before half-time.

Wolves chalked up another point in their push to stave off relegation when holding Everton to a 0-0 draw at Molineux.

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