Chelsea kept winning in the Premier League, beating Portsmouth 2-0 on Saturday for an 11-point edge over second-place Arsenal.
Hernan Crespo put the Blues ahead in the 27th minute at Fratton Park, with midfielder Frank Lampard adding the clincher on a 67th-minute penalty.
It was Lampard’s 160th consecutive league game, breaking a Premier League record. The old record was 159 by Manchester City goalkeeper David James.
It was also the first game in charge for Pompey assistant Joe Jordan, who replaced Alain Perrin after the Frenchman was fired earlier in the week.
Arsenal moved into second place with a 3-0 victory at Highbury behind goals from Francesc Fabregas, Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie. The victory was Arsenal’s 13th straight at home in the league.
Newly promoted Wigan, the surprise club of the season, lost their second straight match, going down 2-1 at home to Tottenham. Wigan had won six consecutive games before losing last weekend to Arsenal. Wigan slipped into third place and next play at Liverpool.
Robbie Keane gave Tottenham a 1-0 lead in the eighth minute, with Edgar Davids scoring in the 77th — the Dutchman’s first goal since joining Spurs this season.
In other games on Saturday, it was: Aston Villa 1, Charlton 0; Manchester City 0, Liverpool 1; and Sunderland 0, Birmingham 1.
On Sunday, it’s: Everton vs Newcastle, Fulham vs Bolton, Middlesbrough vs West Brom, and West Ham vs Manchester United. The game at West Ham will feature brothers Rio Ferdinand and Anton Ferdinand playing against each other for the first time as professionals.
Chelsea lead the league with 37 points, followed by Arsenal (26), Wigan (25) and Manchester United and Tottenham (24).
Crespo hit the target in the 27th minute — his third goal in three games — and then limped off 10 minutes later with what looked like a back injury. Petr Cech made a key save in the 18th to stop Lomana LuaLua from giving Pompey an early lead.
Lampard scored his penalty after Joe Cole was brought down in the area. It was Lampard’s 12th goal of the season.
Fabregas scored for Arsenal in the fourth minute, with Henry adding his in first-half injury time, and Van Persie doing the same in second-half injury time.
”Even if we are a bit flat, we can always score goals — and we know that,” said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, whose club have lost only once in the past 46 home league games.
Asked about getting ahead early, Wenger said: ”For us it was vital, because you can see after European Cup games it’s not easy.”
Arsenal defeated Swiss team FC Thun 1-0 earlier in the week in the Champions League.
Henry’s goal made him the first Arsenal player to score 100 league goals at Highbury. He is also the first Premier League player to reach the 100-goal mark in the same stadium.
Steven Davis’s goal in the 69th gave Villa their first back-to-back Premier League victories in a year. Charlton’s loss was their fourth straight in the league.
John Arne Riise scored for Liverpool in the 61st, improving the defending European champion team to 22 points. It was Liverpool’s fourth straight league victory.
In the battle between the bottom two clubs, Julian Gray scored in the 68th in Birmingham City’s 1-0 victory. It was City’s first goal in the Premier League in 533 minutes and the win broke a six-game league losing streak. Last-place Sunderland have lost six straight league games.
All games in Britain scheduled a minute of silence before the kick-off to honour George Best, the former Manchester United star who died on Friday at age 59.
In at least two games — at Wolverhampton and Glasgow’s Celtic — fans broke into a minute’s applause rather than remaining silent.
Best is expected to be buried on Friday in Belfast, Northern Ireland, alongside his mother, Ann. The funeral will be one of the biggest in Britain since the death of Princess Diana in 1997.
League Championship leader Reading won 2-0 at Plymouth, while second-place Sheffield United lost 4-2 at Leicester. Reading lead on 50 points, with Sheffield United on 46. — Sapa-AP