Chelsea leapfrog Man City to go top; Bolton off bottom

Frank Lampard's first-half goal was enough for the London side to leapfrog Manchester City, who lost 1-0 at Arsenal.

 Liverpool and Arsenal joined Wigan and Everton in joint-third, while Bolton Wanderers moved off the bottom with a 3-0 win over Reading.

 At Stamford Bridge, Lampard finished off a pass from Didier Drogba to put Chelsea ahead but they were indebted to Ashley Cole for securing the points as the defender cleared a late Portsmouth effort off the line.

 "Frank scored at Reading and Liverpool and now it's four consecutive matches for England and Chelsea," Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho said.

 "They were important goals for us and every goal meant something. He is a fantastic player."

   Chelsea now have 10 points from four games, one better than Manchester City, who conceded their first goal of the season as Cesc Fabregas gave Arsenal a late winner.

 Kasper Schmeichel had earlier pulled off a superb penalty save from Robin van Persie but Fabregas pounced with time running out to give Arsenal victory.

 The win lifted them to seven points, the same as Wigan, who drew 1-1 at West Ham United, Everton, who were held 1-1 by Blackburn and Liverpool, who won 2-0 at Sunderland.

 Momo Sissoko put Liverpool ahead eight minutes before the break with a low drive - his first Reds goal and the club's 7,000th - to end a neat move and Andriy Voronin sealed the win with a curled finish three minutes from the end.

 Sunderland were largely toothless in attack and Liverpool, who were allowed the luxury of resting the injured Steven Gerrard, would have won by a bigger margin but for an excellent display by goalkeeper Craig Gordon and some errant finishing.

 "I thought Torres, Voronin, Pennant and Babel caused the Sunderland defence a lot of problems," said Benitez, whose side have a game in hand. "We created a lot of chances and we could have finished off the game a lot earlier.

 "It's not good as a manager for my heart seeing us miss chances, but Voronin scored a good goal to get us the win."

   There was some bad news for Liverpool though as Jamie Carragher suffered a suspected broken rib in a clash with his own goalkeeper Jose Reina, and fellow centre back Sami Hyypia left the field with a suspected broken nose.

 Everton missed the chance to go second when they drew 1-1 with Blackburn but they were grateful for a point as James McFadden's 78th-minute equaliser sealed the draw.

 Nicolas Anelka was among the scorers as Bolton finally found some form to move off the bottom as they beat Reading 3-0.

 Cameron Jerome scored both goals as Birmingham City came from behind to win 2-1 at Derby to move out of the bottom three and leave Derby rooted to the foot of the table.

 Aston Villa beat Fulham 2-1 thanks to a late goal from Shaun Maloney in the day's other game.

 On Sunday, second-from-bottom Manchester United, the reigning champions, will look to kick-start their season by beating Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford while Middlesbrough and Newcastle clash in a north-east derby.

DPA