Chelsea kept their title dreams alive on Sunday with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Manchester City.
A solitary strike from Michael Essien, on his first Premier League start since regaining full fitness, proved to be enough to secure the points and keep Guus Hiddink's unbeaten record intact.
On a glorious afternoon in West London it took less than two minutes for the hosts to find the back of net.
Frank Lampard's early effort was chalked off by a linesman's flag, but it offered an early warning to City.
Mark Hughes' men failed to learn their lesson, though, with Nicolas Anelka and Ricardo Carvalho going close before Essien forced the breakthrough on 17 minutes.
The Ghanaian midfielder was left wide open on the edge of the box and, after being spotted by a Lampard free-kick, looped the ball over the stranded Shay Given in spectacular style.
Felipe Caicedo did scuff a good opportunity narrowly wide on a rare occasion City threatened, but Petr Cech remained untested at the break.
Chelsea began the second half much the brighter and were unfortunate not to build on their lead.
Didier Drogba was proving to be a constant menace and was only stopped from keeping his fine scoring run going by some fantastic defending from Nedum Onuoha and an impressive reflex stop by Given.
City did pose more of an attacking threat as the game wore on, but it was Hiddink's side who came closest to forcing a second.
Anelka drilled into the side-netting after bursting into the box and substitute Florent Malouda saw a low drive hacked off the line by Richard Dunne as the clock ticked down.
Highlight:
Chelsea v Man City
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