London: Chelsea moved four points ahead of Manchester United atop the English Premier League standings with a 1-0 victory over Bolton on Tuesday. It took Nicolas Anelka's 43rd-minute header against his former club to clinch a fourth straight league win for Chelsea.
Chelsea can afford to lose one of its four remaining matches, which includes hosting Tottenham on Saturday and a trip to Liverpool, and still win its first championship crown since 2006.
"The Premier League is in our hands and we have to stay focused and calm," Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti said.
Arsenal is six adrift in third place going into Wednesday's north London derby against Tottenham.
Bolton is just five points above the relegation zone but, and manager Owen Coyle thought his team should have been awarded penalties in each half at Stamford Bridge.
"We were in that game every second of the match," Coyle said. "We are fighting for our lives as well to secure our Premier League place. There are an awful amount of positives to take from the match — the energy and zest of the team."
Last month it seemed Chelsea's season was falling apart — Champions League elimination was followed by a league draw at Blackburn that put Manchester United in control of the title race.
But with Wayne Rooney injured, United has faded while Chelsea has returned to the ascendancy by scoring 17 goals in its last four wins in the league and FA Cup before struggling to beat Bolton.
Bolton had lost four of its last five without scoring and even United manager Alex Ferguson had predicted that these would be three easy points for Chelsea.
It didn't go to plan. Didier Drogba, who spearheaded the Chelsea attack, had a couple of early chances but the home side struggled to put together any flowing football.
And there were a couple of early injury scares for Chelsea defenders. John Terry briefly limped off after appearing to hurt an ankle while trying to block Matthew Taylor's shot, but the captain returned. And bandages were wrapped around Yuri Zhirkov's head after a clash with Kevin Davies to stem the flow of blood.
Bolton proved far more formidable than the side that leaked four goals to United last month. Paulo Ferreira had to scramble the ball off the line in the 15th after Taylor pounced when goalkeeper Petr Cech dropped Lee Chung-yong's cross.
Chelsea did come close to going in front 10 minutes later when Jussi Jaaskelainen parried Drogba's free kick, but it hit Salomon Kalou's head and went wide.
Chelsea made its breakthrough just before the break, when Drogba's left-foot cross picked out Anelka in front of goal and he headed down past former Bolton teammate Jaaskelainen to score his first goal in 14 matches.
Kalou could have strengthened Chelsea's lead at the start of the second half, but he shot straight at Jaaskelainen after being released by Drogba.
Bolton appealed for a penalty when Terry appeared to handle Lee's cross, but the referee's assistant indicated that it hit the center back's upper chest.
"You go through a season and you're going to get penalties and not going to get them — they could have had one," Terry said. "It definitely felt like it hit the top of my chest."
Joe Cole replaced Kalou with around 15 minutes to go and was immediately rampaging down the right and picked out Michael Ballack, but the midfielder headed at Jaaskelainen.
Johan Elmander could have leveled in the closing minutes but he headed wide from Taylor's cross.
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