With Manchester United having lost 3-0 at Fulham yesterday, Chelsea knew they could open up a significant gap over the champions with a win at Upton Park.

However, Alessandro Diamanti scored from the penalty spot shortly before half-time to give West Ham the lead after Ashley Cole had brought down Jack Collison.

But Chelsea equalised in somewhat bizarre circumstances just after the hour mark.

Matthew Upson looked to have won the ball but was judged to have brought down Daniel Sturridge. Upson was booked for his protests before Lampard stepped up to score from the spot.

However, the referee spotted several players encroaching and made Lampard take it again, and then once more for good measure after yet more encroachment.

Earlier in the day, Wolves boss Mick McCarthy had the last laugh as his recalled first-choice players overcame Burnley thanks to goals from Nenad Milijas and Kevin Doyle to move out of the Barclays Premier League bottom three.

McCarthy had come in for heavy criticism after fielding a virtual reserve team at Manchester United in midweek to ensure his players were fresh to face the Clarets.

But any anger among the Wolves fans over that move was forgotten as Milijas fired them into a 16th-minute lead and Doyle doubled their advantage five minutes after the interval to secure a third win in four matches.

It moved them level on 19 points with Burnley, who have now gone seven games without a win.

Elsewhere, Birmingham's five-match winning streak came to an end at Goodison Park as they were outplayed by Everton in a 1-1 draw.

Diniyar Bilyaletdinov's sixth-minute goal was all the hosts had to show for their early dominance and they were caught cold when Sebastian Larsson equalised with Birmingham's first shot of the match midway through the first half.

Everton continued to control the game after the interval but never really threatened to add a second.

The Toffees have now won only once in their last 11 league matches while the point was enough to move Birmingham above Liverpool into seventh.