Chelsea put three past Boro

Chelsea maintained the pressure on Manchester United at the top of the Barclays Premiership thanks to a brace from Didier Drogba and an own goal by Abel Xavier.

Drogba put Chelsea in front on the stroke of half-time with a curling free-kick from 18 yards and Xavier deflected substitute Arjen Robben's shot into his own net in the 66th minute.

Drogba added his second eight minutes from time when another free-kick was deflected off Boro's defensive wall and into the net to take Chelsea's unbeaten home run to 58 games.

It took Chelsea just six minutes to carve open the Middlesbrough defence when Frank Lampard's pass set up Drogba. The Ivorian sent a thunderous volley just wide of the target.

In the 34th minute a challenge by Drogba on Emanuel Pogatetz sparked an ugly touchline confrontation between Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho and Boro boss Gareth Southgate.

Mourinho had to be kept apart from Southgate by the fourth official as he pressed his finger to his lips to indicate he was unhappy with the Boro manager's verbal onslaught to referee Chris Foy.

Chelsea went ahead after George Boateng hauled down Lassana Diarra on the edge of the penalty area. The free-kick provided Drogba with the perfect opportunity to curl a low drive into the bottom corner of the net for his 24th goal of the season.

Chelsea had an escape when Andrew Taylor's cross swerved towards the far post, eluded Blues keeper Petr Cech and cannoned to safety off the crossbar.

In the 65th minute Chelsea replaced the injured Diarra with Arjen Robben and it took the Dutchman just four touches to help put Chelsea further in front a minute later when his run and shot from the right flank was deflected into his own net by Boro defender Xavier.

But Drogba was not finished yet and the Ivory Coast striker completed the scoring in the 82nd minute when another free-kick was deflected over Mark Schwarzer and into the top corner.

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