Two goals from Didier Drogba saw Ancelotti's team make the most of Manchester United's 3-1 lunchtime loss at Everton and put the Londoners in the driving seat for the title with only 11 games remaining.

"The players were aware United had lost, and we managed to take advantage of the situation," said the Italian.

"We didn't play that well, but we had a good spirit, battled for every ball and deserved the points."

Youngsters Dan Gosling and Jack Rodwell earlier came off the bench to hit late goals for Everton after Diniyar Bilyaletdinov had cancelled out Dimitar Berbatov's opener.

American Landon Donovan, on loan from the Los Angeles Galaxy, delivered another impressive display for the Toffees but manager David Moyes still has no plans to extend his loan beyond the end of March.

"I think Landon would like to stay but at the moment it probably looks as if not," Moyes said of the 27-year-old, who is due to rejoin his parent club for the start of the Major League Soccer season.

"I wouldn't want to have any disrespect to his club or the contract he has over there."

Arsenal remained six points behind leaders Chelsea with a 2-0 win over freefalling Sunderland at Emirates Stadium.

Nicklas Bendtner set the Gunners on their way in the first half and Cesc Fabregas sealed the points with a stoppage-time penalty.

Boss Arsene Wenger was particularly pleased with the performance of Theo Walcott, who terrorised Sunderland's defenders with his pace in the first half in front of England manager Fabio Capello.

"He is much sharper than three weeks ago," said the Frenchman. "He still lacks a bit of confidence in the final third but for 70 minutes he looked dangerous and I believe he is on the way up."

At the other end of the table, Portsmouth boss Avram Grant was left to rue the January sale of key central defender Younes Kaboul to Tottenham after his bottom-placed side went down 2-1 at home to Stoke.

Robert Huth comfortably out-jumped Kaboul's replacement, Marc Wilson, to get the Potters back on level terms after Frederic Piquionne's opener for Pompey, and Grant admitted the south-coast club badly miss the Frenchman's aerial presence.

He said: "Since Kaboul left, we have lost a tall player to defend set pieces with and this is the second week we have conceded a goal from a set play.

"We missed Younes and this is the reason I wanted the whole squad to stay."

Salif Diao netted a stoppage-time winner for the visitors, who took home the points despite the 73rd-minute dismissal of Andy Wilkinson.

Gianfranco Zola could barely hide his delight after his West Ham side beat Hull 3-0 at Upton Park.

"I must say the whole team performed very well," he said. "It was a team performance, especially the way we started the game was fantastic.

"We needed to set the tempo straight away and the way we started was excellent. It made the game easier for us."

Valon Behrami, Carlton Cole and Julien Faubert were the men on target for the Hammers, with the visitors' cause not helped by the dismissal of Craig Fagan and a serious leg injury to Anthony Gardner after all three substitutes had been used.