Frank Lampard tormented his former club West Ham, scoring twice as Chelsea kept in touch with the English Premier League leaders with a 3-0 away win in the London derby on Saturday.
Playing with great pace and discipline, Jose Mourinho's team claimed a much-needed win that kept the Blues within four points of league leader Arsenal following two disappointing results.
Lampard opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the 21st minute after West Ham goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen brought down Oscar in the box. The Brazilian midfielder then combined well with playmaker Eden Hazard and slotted home with a low shot from the edge of the box for a superb goal in the 34th.
Lampard sealed the win from a rebound inside the penalty area in the 82nd to extend West Ham's winless home run to five matches.
''Obviously the 100 caps thing was a great honour for me but the most important thing was for the team to get back on track,'' said Lampard, who celebrated 100 caps for England this week. ''We've had couple of results there that we knew if we kept losing silly points then that was us out of the race, so it was massive there for us today and I'm very pleased I was a part of it.''
Lampard's brace ended a run of 10 Premier League matches without a goal for the England international, who scored against his former team for the third game in a row.
''You can see from the minute we started that our work rate, with or without the ball, we were chasing the ball down and Oscar was fantastic in the first half,'' Lampard said. ''We were quick with the ball and the movement was great. When we play like that we're very hard to beat.''
West Ham improved in the second half and should have scored when Guy Demel breezed past three defenders only to see his cross wasted by Madibo Maiga in the 65th.
West Ham moved down to 17th in the standings.
