London - Chelsea extended their lead at the top to eight points after a comprehensive 4-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday while several of their rivals lost points. Michael Essien scored two of Chelsea's goals but second-placed Arsenal were shocked 1-0 at Sunderland and Liverpool's title hopes faded further as they were held to a 2-2 draw by Manchester City.
Manchester United can leapfrog Arsenal into second place if they avoid defeat at home to Everton later on Saturday.
Florent Malouda put Chelsea ahead on five minutes and Essien's double made it 3-0 within 22 minutes.
The icing on the cake came on 56 minutes when Joe Cole scored his first goal in more than a year after his horrible run of luck with injuries.
Arsenal dominated Sunderland in the first half but were undone by a corner headed in by Darren Bent.
Liverpool needed an equalizer from Yossi Benayoun to snatch a point against Manchester City, but they remain seventh, now 13 points behind Chelsea.
City stay sixth, one point ahead of Liverpool after their sixth successive draw.
For Liverpool, it's now one win in 10 matches and their injury problems suffered another blow after Daniel Agger and Ryan Babel were taken off within their first 20 minutes.
Liverpool took the lead four minutes into the second half when Martin Skrtel got on the end of Steven Gerrard's free kick to score his first goal for the club.
Liverpool sat back after the goal and they paid the price when an unmarked Emmanuel Adebayor headed the equalizer from a corner on 68 minutes.
With substitute Carlos Tevez prominent, City looked the more dangerous and took the lead seven minutes later when Stephen Ireland finished off a neat move.
But their lead lasted only 74 seconds as David Ngog's shot was deflected and Benayoun slid in for the equalizer. Shaun Wright- Phillips had a shot well saved by Reina while Lucas wasted a free header in the last minute.
Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez praised his side's character in overcoming more injury adversity and backed them to get back into the top four when the likes of Fernando Torres and Glen Johnson return.
"City have quality but if we can improve and play at our level we'll be in the top four," Benitez said.
"We won six games in a row and I am sure when we have players back we'll start winning games in a row."
Emile Heskey scored his first Premier League goal in seven months to rescue a point for Aston Villa with a 1-1 draw at Bolton, lifting them to fourth place.
West Ham United were 2-0 up within 11 minutes at Hull City, but a Carlton Cole own goal, a Kamil Zayatte effort and a penalty by Jimmy Bullard put Hull ahead at half-time.
Bernard Mendy was sent off for Hull on 53 minutes and West Ham snatched an equalizer through Manuel Da Costa (69) to seal a 3-3 draw.
