Chelsea and Man. United pour it on

• by Soccer America , Mar 28, 2010

[ENGLAND] With goal difference the potential tiebreaker in the tight Premier League race, Chelsea and Manchester United ran up the score on Saturday. Chelsea crushed Aston Villa, 7-1, hours before United defeated Bolton Wanderers, 4-0, to stay one point ahead heading into next Saturday's showdown at Old Trafford. Arsenal, meanwhile, fell off the pace, dropping four points behind United when it conceded a goal in stoppage time and had to settle for a 1-1 tie at Birmingham City.

Chelsea's win featured four goals by Frank Lampard, who moved ahead of Roy Bentley and Peter Osgood and into third place on the all-time Chelsea scoring list with 151 goals, behind only Kerry Dixon and Bobby Tambling are now ahead of Lampard.

The Blues lead United by two goals in goal differential: plus-53 (82-29) to plus-51 (76-25).

United benefited from its 11th own goal this season -- scored by Trinidadian Jlloyd Samuel -- to open the scoring against Bolton.

With United set to face Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Tuesday, top scorer Wayne Rooney and England captain Rio Ferdinand were rested.

Arsenal went ahead at Birmingham on Samir Nasri's goal in the 81st minute, but substitute Kevin Phillips equalized an attempted clearance hit off him and went into the goal.