Chelsea ends five game slide LONDON — Manchester City beat Blackburn Rovers 3-0 for its 18th successive home league win to move five points clear of Manchester United at the top of the Premier League Saturday. Earlier Chelsea ended a five-match run without a win when it beat Bolton Wanderers 3-0 to ease some of the pressure on under-fire coach Andre Villas-Boas. Goals from Mario Balotelli, Sergio Aguero and substitute Edin Dzeko moved City on to 63 points from 26 matches, five clear of the champion which has a game in hand until it plays at Norwich City Sunday. Tottenham Hotspur, which visits Arsenal in the North London derby Sunday, is third on 53 points, seven ahead of Chelsea with a game in hand. Arsenal is fifth on 43, the same tally as Newcastle United, which was held to a 2-2 draw by struggling Wolverhampton Wanderers Saturday. City's win was rarely in doubt after Balotelli ended a swift City counter-attack by thumping home first time after 30 minutes while Aguero took advantage of Rovers goalkeeper Paul Robinson's flap at a corner to double their advantage after 52 minutes. Dzeko scored with a superb header after 81 minutes — less than two minutes after replacing Balotelli. City has become the first top flight side to win 13 consecutive home league games from the start of a season since Newcastle in 1996, and only the sixth top flight side to win 18 home league games in a row since the League started in 1888. While Wolverhampton Wanderers climbed out of the relegation zone, it was replaced by Queens Park Rangers, a 1-0 loser at home to Fulham. Sunderland, rejuvenated since Martin O'Neill's arrival as manager in December, was brought back down to earth with a 4-0 loss at West Bromwich Albion and last-place Wigan drew 0-0 at home to Aston Villa. Lampard was one of the leading Chelsea players, along with fellow senior stars Ashley Cole and Michael Essien, controversially left out by Villas-Boas for the 3-1 loss at Napoli in the last 16 of the Champions League Wednesday. That defeat piled more pressure on the inexperienced Portuguese coach but he brought the old guard back into the starting lineup against Bolton and that decision eventually paid dividends. “It takes a bit of weight off our shoulders to get back to winning ways,” said Chelsea defender Gary Cahill, who kept a clean sheet against the club that sold him in January. “The mood in the dressing room is fantastic and we will build from here.” Leverkusen beats Cologne In Berlin, Lars Bender scored twice for Bayer Leverkusen to beat Cologne 2-0 in the Bundesliga's Rhine derby Saturday. Bender opened the scoring in the __
