LONDON
Chelsea opened up a five-point gap at the top of the English Premier League here Saturday, with goals from Florent Malouda and Salomon Kalou goal wrapping up a 2-0 victory over Wolves.
Malouda’s goal came on 23 minutes, the French international providing the finish after neat interplay between Yuri Zhirkov and Nicolas Anelka. Salomon Kalou bagged Chelsea’s second after a scintillating sequence of one-touch play opened up the Wolves defence on 81 minutes.
In other matches Saturday, a dreadful blunder by Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard gave Tottenham a share of the points in a 1-1 draw at White Hart Lane which was enough to see Spurs move up to third in the table. Everton had taken a 1-0 lead with an exquisitely flighted free-kick from Leighton Baines on 17 minutes.
But Spurs levelled within three minutes when Howard fluffed a punched clearance, allowing Peter Crouch to guide the ball across the face of goal for striker Rafael Van der Vaart, who hammered home the equaliser. Yet despite enjoying plenty of possession for the remainder of the game, Spurs were unable to penetrate a well-organised Everton line-up.
Elsewhere, newly promoted West Bromwich Albion advanced to fourth after coming from behind to defeat Fulham 2-1 at the Hawthorns. Fulham had taken the lead on nine minutes when a Zoltan Gera shot was tipped onto the post by Scott Carson only to cannon back off the West Brom keeper and roll into the net.
Yet the Baggies were back on level terms soon afterwards, when Chris Brunt picked out Congolese striker Youssouf Mulumbu who rifled past Mark Schwarzer to make it 1-1. West Brom took the lead five minutes before half-time, Brunt and Jerome Thomas combining well to play in Marc-Antoine Fortune who made it 2-1.
At the Stadium of Light, Aston Villa defender Richard Dunne set an unwanted Premier League record when his own goal handed Sunderland a 1-0 victory. It was the eighth own goal of Dunne’s career and proved decisive as Villa struggled in vain to find an equaliser after dominating the second half. Wigan and Bolton Wanderers fought out a 1-1 draw at the DW Stadium, Hugo Rodallega scoring on 59 minutes for the Latics before Swedish international Johan Elmander levelled for the visitors seven minutes later.
Birmingham piled on the misery for minnows Blackpool with a 2-0 victory at St Andrews. Birmingham went 1-0 up through a Liam Ridgewell goal shortly before half-time, following up to nod home after Serbian Nikola Zigic had headed onto the bar.
The Blues doubled their lead shortly after the restart after a mistake by Blackpool playmaker Charlie Adam allowed Zigic to pounce and drill home on 57 minutes.
