Chelsea moved to the top of the league table with a 1-0 victory over Portsmouth in their Premiership clash on Saturday. Frank Lampard returned to form with a 31st minute goal to grab all three points for Chelsea in a game that saw both the teams create a number of chances without any success. New signing Juliano Belletti was on the bench as well as Joe Cole as Jose Mourinho stuck with Shaun Wright-Phillips and Florent Malouda on the wings.

The hosts went on the attack from the kick off and could have taken the lead in the opening minute of the game when Claudio Pizarro's low drive beat James as well as the post. Pizarro had another chance to score when he met Florent Malouda's curling free kick, but his header went just over the cross bar. Though Portsmouth were not very adventurous in the field, they managed to stifle down Chelsea's attacking moves as a frustrated Mourinho urged his team to pour ahead. Matthew Taylor had a great chance of scoring for the visitors in the first half as he saw his shot deflect off Tal Ben Haim and go just wide of the target. 

Chelsea took the lead against the run of play in the 31st minute when Didier Drogba trapped a long ball and made a clever back pass to play in Lampard who made no mistake in smashing the ball under James to score his third goal of the week.

Portsmouth could have equalized just before the break when Taylor's chip had beaten Petr Cech but flew just over the bar. Pompey continued to press forward in the second half and Gary O'Neil had two great chances to pull his team level.

A clever play by Kanu found O'Neil just 8 yards from goal but the midfielder managed to shoot wide. A quick counter attack from Portsmouth following a Chelsea corner ended with O'Neil missing the post by a whisker. Portsmouth nearly found the equalizer in the dying moments of the match.

David Nugent's close range shot struck Kanu and as Chelsea failed to clear their lines, the ball fell Hreidarsson. However his effort was clear off the line with an acrobatic header by Ashley Cole leaving Portsmouth empty handed.