Chelsea bounced back from their mini-slump and surged to the top of the Premier League with a 3-0 home victory over Stoke City thanks to goals from Mohamed Salah, Frank Lampard and Willian at Stamford Bridge yesterday.

A 32nd minute strike by Salah, making his first start since joining Chelsea in January, and second-half efforts from Lampard, whose initial penalty was saved by Asmir Begovic, and Willian saw the Blues move on to 72 points.

They are one point ahead of Liverpool, who can return to the summit by avoiding defeat at West Ham today, and two ahead of Man. City, who beat Southampton 4-1 in yesterday’s early match and have two games in hand on the leaders.

Manchester United moved into sixth place with a 4-0 win at Newcastle United ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League return at Bayern Munich, while Fulham moved off the bottom of the table with a 2-1 victory at Aston Villa.

Chelsea’s win brought some cheer back to west London after a tough seven days which saw Jose Mourinho’s side lose 1-0 at Crystal Palace last weekend and 3-1 at Paris St Germain in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday.

“Normally after a defeat you don’t start confidently but this team today went upwards all the time,” the Portuguese told Sky Sports.

Stoke seem like a new side under Mark Hughes and four wins in their last five matches means no threat of relegation, but they struggled to create any real openings.

Salah settled home nerves after 32 minutes, calmly finishing after Nemanja Matic created space for himself down the left and cut the ball back for the Egyptian.

Chelsea thought they had doubled their lead just before the break but Branislav Ivanovic was correctly ruled offside after heading in Salah’s cross.

The hosts got a deserved second after 61 minutes when Salah was hacked down in the box by Andy Wilkinson.

Lampard’s spot-kick was saved but he buried the rebound before Willian capped an industrious display with Chelsea’s third goal, clipping a delightful shot into the corner.

Southampton, this season’s surprise package, were on the back foot almost immediately at Manchester City when Jose Fonte brought down Edin Dzeko after three minutes.

Ivorian Yaya Toure calmly converted his sixth penalty from six attempts this season for his 18th league goal overall.

The Saints slowly rallied with the trio of Jay Rodriguez, Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert, who were hoping to impress watching England manager Roy Hodgson, pulling the strings with width provided by Luke Shaw and Calum Chambers.

They suffered a major blow after 23 minutes, however, when Rodri-guez landed awkwardly on his right leg after attempting to control a high ball.

Southampton deservedly equa-lised through Lambert’s penalty, his 11th league goal this season, after Jack Cork was felled by defender Pablo Zabaleta in the 36th minute.

The visitors were playing well and looked like they would go into the break level but instead they let their good work go to waste by allowing City to wrestle back control.

First, Frenchman Nasri sidefooted home after being set up following a fine move involving Toure, Dzeko and David Silva, although the Spaniard appeared offside.

In the fourth minute of first half added time, Dzeko then headed into an empty net after goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga dived but missed Aleksandar Kolarov’s cross.

Jovetic added a final flourish for City, scoring a simple goal after Jesus Navas’ cross evaded the suffering Gazzaniga.

United, missing injured strikers Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie, won easily at Newcastle, Juan Mata scoring twice and Javier Hernandez and Adnan Januzaj adding one each, although they lost Ashley Young with a hand injury.

For Alan Pardew’s Newcastle it was a second straight 4-0 loss.

Fulham had Hugo Rodallega’s late goal to thank for their win at Villa which took them above Sunderland, who play tomorrow at Tottenham, and Cardiff City who lost 3-0 at home to Crystal Palace.

Jason Puncheon’s double and a Joe Ledley strike extended Cardiff’s miserable run under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with Palace scoring three away goals in a top-flight match for the first time since 1997.

Fulham moved up to 18th on 27 points with Cardiff in 19th place on 26 and Sunderland a further point back but with three matches in hand.

West Brom, who finally appear to have hit form under Pepe Mel, won 1-0 at Norwich with an early goal from Morgan Amalfitano while George Boyd’s strike gave Hull City a 1-0 victory at Swansea.

Foxes promoted

Leicester City have returned to the Premier League for the first time since 2004 after Queens Park Rangers and Derby County both lost yesterday.

Leicester, who beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 on Friday, have 89 points from 40 matches, and are guaranteed to finish in the top two positions.

QPR lost to Bournemouth 2-1 while Derby went down 1-0 to Middlesbrough, meaning neither side can overhaul Nigel Pearson’s side.

Leicester lead second-placed Burnley by nine points.

Results and standings

Premier League

Aston Villa 1
Holt 70;
Fulham 2
Richardson 61; Rodallega 86;

HT: 0-0. Att: 33,532.

Cardiff City 0
Crystal Palace 3
Puncheon 31, 88; Ledley 71;

HT: 0-1. Att: 27,687.

Chelsea 3
Salah 32; Lampard 61; Willian 72;
Stoke City 0

HT: 1-0. Att: 41,168.
Missed penalty: Lampard (C) 61.

Hull City 1
Boyd 39;
Swansea City 0

HT: 1-0. Att: 22,744.

Man. City 4
Toure 3 pen; Nasri 45; Dzeko 45+4; Jovetic 81;
Southampton 1
Lambert 37 pen;

HT: 3-1. Att: 47,009.

Newcastle 0
Man. United 4
Mata 39, 50; Hernandez 65; Januzaj 90;

HT: 0-1. Att: 50,000.

Norwich City 0
West Brom 1
Amalfitano 16;

HT: 0-1. Att: 26,859.

	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
Chelsea	33	22	6	5	65	24	72
Liverpool	32	22	5	5	88	39	71
Man. City	31	22	4	5	84	29	70
Arsenal	32	19	7	6	56	37	64
Everton	31	17	9	5	49	31	60
Man. United	33	17	6	10	56	38	57
Tottenham	32	17	5	10	40	44	56
Southampton	33	13	9	11	50	44	48
Newcastle	33	14	4	15	38	51	46
Stoke City	33	10	10	13	37	48	40
West Ham	32	10	7	15	36	42	37
Hull City	33	10	6	17	34	40	36
Aston Villa	32	9	7	16	35	48	34
C. Palace	32	10	4	18	23	39	34
Swansea	33	8	9	16	45	49	33
West Brom	32	6	14	12	37	48	32
Norwich City	33	8	8	17	26	52	32
Fulham	33	8	3	22	33	74	27
Cardiff City	33	6	8	19	29	64	26
Sunderland	30	6	7	17	28	48	25

Playing today
Everton vs Arsenal - 14.30
West Ham vs Liverpool - 17.00

Tomorrow
Tottenham vs Sunderland - 21.00

Top scorers
29 goals: Suarez (Liverpool).
20 goals: Sturridge (Liverpool).
18 goals: Toure (Man. City).
15 goals: Aguero (Man. City), Rooney (Man. United), Rodriguez (Southampton).
14 goals: Hazard (Chelsea).
13 goals: Giroud (Arsenal), Remy (Newcastle).
12 goals: Lukaku (Everton).

Next fixtures
Saturday: FA Cup semi-final 18.07 Wigan vs Arsenal.
Saturday: Premier League 15.07 C. Palace vs Aston Villa; Fulham vs Norwich; Southampton vs Cardiff; Stoke City vs Newcastle; Sunderland vs Everton; West Brom vs Tottenham.
Sunday: FA Cup semi-final 17.07 Hull vs Sheffield United.
Sunday: Premier League 14.37 Liverpool vs Manchester City; 17.07 Swansea City vs Chelsea.

The Championship
Barnsley 0 - Brighton 0
Blackburn 2 - Ipswich 0
Blackpool 1 - Yeovil 2
Bournemouth 2 - QPR 1
Charlton 0 - Reading 1
Doncaster 1 - Birmingham 3
Huddersfield 0 - Bolton 1
M’boro 1 - Derby 0
Nottm Forest 1 - Millwall 2
Watford 1 - Burnley 1
Wigan 1 - Leeds United 0

Standings: Leicester City 89; Burnley 80; Queen’s Park Rangers 70; Derby County 69; Wigan Athletic 67; Reading 63; Nottingham Forest, Brighton, Ipswich, Bournemouth 58; Blackburn Rovers 56; Watford 53; Middlesbrough 52; Sheffield Wed., Bolton Wanderers 48; Leeds United 47; Huddersfield Town 46; Birmingham City, Doncaster Rovers 43; Blackpool 42; Charlton 38; Barnsley, Millwall 36; Yeovil Town 35.

League One
Bradford 2 - Oldham 3
Brentford 3 - Notts County 1
Bristol City 1 - Preston NE 1
Carlisle 1 - Swindon 0
Colchester 1 - Tranmere 2
Coventry City 1 - MK Dons 2
Crawley 1 - Crewe 2
Gillingham 3 - Rotherham 4
Port Vale 1 - Walsall 0
Sheffield Utd 1 - L. Orient 1
Shrewsbury 1 - Stevenage 0
Wolves 2 - Peterborough 0

Standings: Wolves 90; Brentford 84; Rotherham United 78; Leyton Orient 77; Preston North End 76; Peterborough United 61; MK Dons 58; Swindon Town, Port Vale 57; Walsall 56; Sheffield United 53; Bradford, Coventry City 49; Gillingham 48; Bristol City, Oldham Athletic 47; Crawley Town 46; Colchester United, Tranmere Rovers, Carlisle United; Crewe Alexandra 43; Shrewsbury Town 41; Notts County 40; Stevenage 39.

League Two
Accrington 0 - Northampton 1
Wimbledon 0 - Bristol Rovers 0
Burton 1 - Plymouth 0
Bury 2 - Exeter 0
Cheltenham 1 - Southend 2
Chesterfield 1 - Newport 1
Morecambe 0 - Mansfield 1
Oxford 0 - Fleetwood 2
Portsmouth 1 - Hartlepool 0
Rochdale 0 - York 0
Torquay 0 - Scunthorpe 1
Wycombe 2 - Dagenham 0

Standings: Rochdale, Scunthorpe United 75; Chesterfield 71; Fleetwood Town, Burton Albion 68; Southend United 62; York 60; Oxford United 59; Plymouth Argyle 55; Dagenham 54; Bury, Mansfield Town 53; Cheltenham 51; Newport 50; Hartlepool, Accrington, Wimbledon 49; Morecambe, Portsmouth 48; Exeter, Bristol Rovers 47; Wycombe 46; Northampton 43; Torquay 36.