Goalscoring midfielders in vogue as Chelsea take the lead

Box-to-box midfielder Frank Lampard was the top points scoring player last night as Chelsea returned to the Premier League summit.

The England international scored two goals for six points in the 3-0 win over upstarts Birmingham.

Florent Malouda opened the scoring and set-up Lampard's second, finishing the game with five points, while Michael Ballack and Joe Cole picked up an assist each.

Arsenal have dropped to third place after drawing 0-0 with Aston Villa, but lost Thomas Vermaelen to a suspected broken leg.

Tim Cahill bagged five points in Everton's 2-0 win over freefalling Sunderland, converting a Marouane Fellaini cross to open the scoring and sending away Landon Donovan to net his first goal in English football.

Fantasy League enigma Morten Gamst Pedersen was back among the points with five of his own as Blackburn beat inconsistent Wigan 2-1.

It was Rovers' second straight win and Pedersen set the ball rolling with a stunning strike and crossed for Nikola Kalinic to score the winner after Gary Caldwell had equalised for Wigan – youngster James McCarthy got the assist.