CHELSEA returned to second in the league with an emphatic win over doomed Portsmouth – but they could yet face disciplinary action after two unsavoury incidents.
Pompey's Tommy Smith suffered a broken nose, and Ricardo Rocha a suspected fractured cheekbone, after Daniel Sturridge and Florent Malouda respectively seemed to lash out with their elbows.
Malouda, who picked up a yellow for his challenge, may be in the clear. But Sturridge, escaped unpunished – a decision that could yet be reviewed by a disciplinary panel.
The game itself started with an uninspiring Chelsea looking anything like the team that has established a 53-year unbeaten record at Fratton Park.
They were lucky in the 32nd minute when Didier Drogba chased down a ball, more out of hope than expectation, as David James seemed to have it covered with an easy clearance. But England's Number One swiped at thin air with his boot, enabling the Chelsea striker to round him for an easy tap-in.
Five minutes after the break Florent Malouda again found out James, when he picked up the end of a perfect Frank Lampard pass to slot the ball into the back of the net.
And the third was only another ten minutes away - again from the boot of Malouda, this time rifled so hard it almost broke the roof of the net.
Drogba scored his second, and Chelsea's forth of the night in the 77 th minute, when he beat Steve Finnan to a Jon Mikel Obi pass and drilled it in.
And Lampard finished the evening, deep in injury time, with a headed fifth.
The win puts Chelsea's title destiny back in their own hands – seven league wins out of seven will make them champions.
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