Lampard strike sees off Pompey

Lampard struck in the 31st minute when his low drive was half stopped by Portsmouth goalkeeper David James before bouncing into the back of the net.

Pompey had plenty of chances to get something out of the game but Matt Taylor, Gary O'Neil, Sean Davis and substitute Benjani Mwaruwari were all guilty of poor finishing.

In the 10th minute, the home side put together a fine move, with Claudio Pizarro and Florent Malouda combining on the left-blank but Malouda's left-foot shot from an acute angle could only find the side-netting.

Chelsea found themselves having to defend for the first time in the game and, in the 23rd minute, Pompey almost took the lead. Matt Taylor found himself with time and space in the penalty area and his curling shot deflected inches wide of Petr Cech's far post.

Chelsea broke the deadlock in the 31st minute and the goal owed much to the bravery of Didier Drogba, who collected a kick in the face for his efforts as he found Lampard with a flick-on. Lampard ran clear of the Pompey defence to drive the ball under James. The England stopper should really have done better but, although he got a hand to the drive, he could not prevent it going in.

Chelsea began where they left off after the break and a clever move involving Malouda and Drogba ended with Wright-Phillips shooting just wide of the target from the edge of the penalty area.

A minute later, Portsmouth should have equalised when Davis collected a neat pass from Kanu only to fire over the crossbar from eight yards.

The visitors squandered another opportunity in the 58th minute when a counter-attack caught Chelsea's defence napping but Gary O'Neil could not find the target from the edge of the penalty area when presented with a clear shot at goal.

And Chelsea were lucky to escape three minutes from time when a header from Hermann Hreidarsson was cleared off the line by Ashley Cole.