Stoke City's Ricardo Fuller (left) heads the ball past the Arsenal defence to score during their English Premier League match at the Britannia Stadium, Stoke yesterday. Stoke won 2-1. - AP

LONDON (AP):

Nicolas Anelka hit a hat-trick on Saturday to help Chelsea beat visiting Sunderland 5-0 and take the Premier League lead from Liverpool, who lost 2-1 at Tottenham for their first loss of this season.

While Arsenal's poor week continued with a humiliating 2-1 loss at Stoke - which let Manchester United take third place with a 4-3 win over visiting Hull - Anelka scored twice in the first half and once in the second as Chelsea went to 26 points.

Liverpool took a third-minute lead at Tottenham, but Spurs rallied for a second time in four days through an own goal by Jamie Carragher and moved off the bottom of the standings when Roman Pavlyu-chenko scored in the 90th minute.

Close-range score

Chelsea never looked like losing at Stamford Bridge, particularly after Brazil defender Alex scored from a close-range rebound in the 27th minute.

Anelka, who had hit just six goals in 25 Premier League appearances since joining Chelsea in January, made it 2-0 three minutes later when he touched in Alex's goal-bound shot. The France striker scored again in the 45th from a pass by Florent Malouda and Sunderland's problems were compounded when manager Roy Keane was sent to the stands at half-time for protesting against Anelka's first goal.

Lampard's record

Frank Lampard made it 4-0 with a header six minutes into the second half, notching his 100th career league goal, and 99th in the Premier League to go alongside a single effort in League One while playing on loan at Swansea in the 1995-96 season.

"Lampard can score 150 goals in his career," Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari said. "One goal every two or three games is fantastic for a midfielder. I think this season we need to think who is the best in the world. It is Frank Lampard."

Anelka completed his first hat-trick in England since September 2003 with a 53rd-minute finish from Malouda's low cross, and Chelsea regained the lead on goal difference.

Tottenham were confident going into their match after rallying from 4-2 down to draw 4-4 at Arsenal in midweek, but trailed to a fierce shot by Dirk Kuyt and could have been further behind after a flurry of chances to the Reds.

But Carragher, who moments earlier had broken up a Tottenham attack by tripping Darren Bent off the ball, headed a 70th-minute corner kick into his own net under pressure from Ledley King and Pavlyu-chenko flicked a cross by Bent past goalkeeper Jose Reina to complete Spurs' first win over Liverpool in five years.

The victory took Tottenham's points tally since Harry Redknapp became manager a week ago to seven from three matches, and lifted the previously moribund squad up two places to 18th.

Arsenal were seeking victory at lowly Stoke to rally from the disappointment of Wednesday's draw with their fierce rivals but instead were dealt a third loss in eleven games - the same number of defeats they took in the whole of last season.

Stoke took a 11th-minute lead when Ricardo Fuller hit his fifth goal of the season from a long throw by Rory Delap, while Seyi Olofinjana made it 2-0 in the 73rd.