Nicolas Anelka's two goals kept Chelsea at the top of the Premier League in a 2-0 victory at Blackburn on Sunday, and Darren Bent's double lifted Tottenham away from last place in a 2-1 victory at nine-man Manchester City. Anelka is now the league's leading scorer with 10 goals as the Blues marked Luiz Felipe Scolari's 60th birthday with their ninth straight away league victory. Chelsea and Liverpool are level on 29 points with the Blues ahead on goal difference. Scolari's team has a stellar away record of six victories and a 16-1 goal differential. The Blues also won their final three away games last season. On a saturated Ewood Park playing surface, Anelka should have given Chelsea a fifth-minute lead when he collected a weak Blackburn back pass. The France striker went around goalkeeper Paul Robinson, but fell on the wet pitch when facing an empty net. Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech made a top quality, one-handed diving save from Chilean midfielder Carlos Villanueva before the Blues went ahead in the 39th after being helped by a stroke of good fortune. Jose Bosingwa's 30-meter (yard) shot struck Anelka on the knee and deflected past Robinson, the ball slowing off the wet turf and only just making it across the line. However, Anelka's second in the 68th was well taken. Frank Lampard slid into a tackle just inside the area and pushed the ball through to the unmarked Anelka, who chipped it over Robinson as he raced off his line. With so little between the teams in the bottom half of the standings, Fulham climbed out of the relegation zone and up to 10th place by beating Newcastle 2-1. Tuncay Sanli was another player to score twice as Middlesbrough won 2-1 at fifth-place Aston Villa. Bayern moves up to 3rd In Germany, defending champion Bayern Munich beat Schalke 2-1 on Sunday to move within a point of the lead in the Bundesliga after Hoffenheim lost 1-0 at Hertha Berlin. Franck Ribery scored his fourth goal in four games to secure Bayern's win as Juergen Klinsmann's team won its fifth straight. Hoffenheim had its own five-game winning streak stopped by a goal from Andriy Voronin in Berlin to lose the league lead to Bayer Leverkusen on goal difference. In the third game Sunday, Stuttgart rallied from a two-goal deficit to draw 2-2 at Eintracht Frankfurt. Leverkusen wasted a 3-0 lead in Karlsruhe on Saturday to draw 3-3 but still led at the end of the 12th round by one goal over Hoffenheim. Both teams have 25 points and Bayern jumped past Hamburger SV into third with 24. Hamburg has 23 and Hertha moved past Schalke into fifth by beating Hoffenheim, the surprise promoted team that fell to its third defeat of the season. – AP __
