Chelsea have restored their three-point lead in the English Premier football League with an unconvincing 2-1 home win against bottom club Portsmouth.
Frank Lampard scored a 79th-minute penalty on his 300th league appearance for Chelsea.
Champions Manchester United had pulled level on points yesterday after beating a weakened Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-nil in manager Alex Ferguson's 900th league game in charge.
Arsenal failed to match the pace, held 1-all by a spirited Burnley at a rain-lashed Turf Moor to move ahead of Aston Villa on goal difference in third place with a game in hand but eight points off the lead.
Chelsea have 40 points, United 37 and Arsenal 32.
Liverpool, marking the 50th anniversary of the late Bill Shankly taking over as the club's manager, grabbed a morale-boosting 2-1 win over Wigan Athletic at Anfield to move ahead of Manchester City into sixth place.
City crashed 3-nil to fifth-placed Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane, the ambitious northerners suffering only their second league defeat of the season after drawing eight of their last 10 games.
