Frank Lampard scored his 50th Premiership goal in typically thrilling style with half-time approaching, rifling home after good work by Arjen Robben to double the lead.

Robben then got in on the action himself, making it 3-0 a minute before the break.

Norwich put up more resistence in the second half, but £24million striker Didier Drogba came off the bench to grab Chelsea’s fourth seven minutes from time.

Second-placed Everton lost ground on the Premiership leaders with a goalless draw at Blackburn.

Both sides had chances to win and as the full-time whistle approached young Rovers striker Paul Gallagher had a goal disallowed for offside.

High-flying Middlesbrough weathered an Aston Villa storm to win 3-0 at the Riverside.

Boro took the lead 20 minutes into the game after dominating the early stages.

Gareth Southgate cleared Gareth Barry’s effort off the line before George Boateng, fed Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink who buried his shot past Thomas Sorensen from 20 yards.

Boro were up against it in the second half but on the counter attack, after Olof Mellberg gave the ball away, Joseph Desire-Job took advantage to make it 2-0 after 68 minutes.

Villa again drove forward with no success and were punished when defender Michael Reiziger completed the scoring with two minutes left to play.

Harry Redknapp’s frustrating start to life in the Southampton hotseat continued at White Hart Lane as Tottenham cruised to a 5-1 walkover.

Calamitous Southampton defending allowed Fredi Kanoute to centre the ball to Jermain Defoe, who slammed it home from six yards.

Defoe took his tally to 13 goals for the season so far when he exposed Southampton’s creaky defence again after 27 minutes, Kanoute again turning provider to put the home side two goals up.

As Saints waited for the half-time whistle, Kanoute turned goalscorer to put the game beyond the visitors.

Peter Crouch pulled one back two minutes after the re-start with a well-taken header. But any hopes of a real fightback were distinguished when Defoe completed his hat-trick.

Antti Niemi spilled Michael Brown’s shot into the England striker’s path and with Sven-Goran Eriksson watching, tapped the ball home.

Robbie Keane came off the bench to add further insult to Southampton’s injury, scoring to make it 5-1.

In a scrappy Lancashire derby Bolton’s poor recent run continued as Manchester City took all three points at the Reebok Stadium.

Nicolas Anelka thought he had been illegally felled in the box, and although no penalty was given, the ball went to midfielder Joey Barton who gleefully fired home to put City ahead and hand Kevin Keegan a vital win.

Earlier in the day, Birmingham completed their second derby win in a week with a 4-0 thumping of West Brom in a midday kick-off at St Andrews.

Former Blues defender Darren Purse seemed to pull Clinton Morrison over in the box and City midfielder Robbie Savage stepped up to score from the spot just three minutes into the match.

In-form Clinton Morrison quickly doubled the lead with a cool finish 20 minutes later and the game was put beyond Bryan Robson’s men when Emile Heskey showed a cool head to fire home a third on the half-hour mark.

The boos rang out from the West Brom section at half-time as Robson was made to feel the pressure from the Baggies fans. Darren Anderton compounded their misery seven minutes from time when his deflected free-kick made it 4-0.