Blues stretch lead at top, Sunderland stun Villa

Oct 24, 2010 |

London, Oct. 23: Chelsea opened up a five-point gap at the top of the English Premier League here Saturday, goals from Florent Malouda and Salomon Kalou goal wrapping up a 2-0 victory over Wolves.

With Manchester City facing Arsenal on Sunday and Manchester United traveling to Stoke, the champions seized the chance to put pressure on the chasing pack by taking maximum points at Stamford Bridge.

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, 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.

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