Champion Chelsea opened a five-point gap at the top of the English Premier League with a 2-0 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers at Stamford Bridge in London yesterday with goals from Florent Malouda and Salomon Kalou.

Malouda struck his seventh league goal of the season and Kalou came off the bench to seal victory after the break for Carlo Ancelotti's side whose early-season torrent of goals has slowed to a trickle in recent weeks.

Tottenham Hotspur rose to third, seven points behind Chelsea, after Dutchman Rafael van der Vaart made it five goals in seven since joining the north London club, notching his side's equalizer in a 1-1 draw at home to improving Everton.

West Bromwich Albion maintained its dream start to life back in the top flight, moving into fourth place with a 2-1 home defeat of Fulham while Birmingham City beat Blackpool 2-0.

Sunderland beat Aston Villa 1-0 and Wigan Athletic's home match against Bolton Wanderers ended 1-1. Bottom club West Ham United hosts Newcastle United later.

Manchester City can reduce Chelsea's lead today when it hosts Arsenal while Manchester United, down in sixth place, ends its turbulent week away to Stoke City. Liverpool is at home against Blackburn Rovers.

At White Hart Lane, Van der Vaart's 20th-minute goal came three minutes after Leighton Baines hit a free kick for his first goal in 14 months.

"You don't get an easy game with Everton, you never do," Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp said. "We had the better of the chances but it was always going to be a tough day on the back of a hard week.

"We just needed a break, but it didn't quite come. But to come back again from 1-0 down shows a lot of character. We go behind, we never give up, we come back."

Peter Crouch, however, missed more than one chance to clinch what would have been Tottenham's fourth comeback win in five league matches.

"It was a good point, a hard-earned point," Everton manager David Moyes said. "We had a few opportunities on the counterattack which we didn't take late on, but overall I'm pleased we came here and got a hard-earned point."

Everton, without Mikel Arteta, chased and harried all over the pitch while Spurs midfielder Wilson Palacios, starting his first league game for six weeks, was booked for a foul on Ayegbeni Yakubu as the visitors looked to hit their opponents on the break.

But Tim Cahill's tame long-ranger and Luka Modric's low strike from the edge of the box - well saved by Tim Howard - were the only efforts on goal until Baines struck.

The fit-again Younes Kaboul fouled Yakubu on the edge of the box and Baines stepped up to curl a free kick into the top corner.

But Tottenham was level inside three minutes after Howard flapped at Alan Hutton's cross and Crouch nodded the ball back across goal for Van der Vaart to put it over the line.

Modric, captain in the absence of Ledley King and Tom Huddlestone, fired wide from 20 meters and Crouch saw a penalty appeal turned down after getting sandwiched between Phil Jagielka and Phil Neville.

After a slow start to the season mid-table Everton stretched its unbeaten league run to four games.