If ever there was a fixture for the champions to guarantee a win it is away to Bolton and they clinched their eighth victory in a row at the Reebok Stadium with a stunning strike by Didier Drogba and goals by Florent Malouda, Nicolas Anelka and Ramires.
Those eight games have produced 18 goals for the Londoners while Bolton have failed to find the net in any of them.
Petr Cech dived full length to touch a Matt Taylor header round the post in a rare sight of goal for the hosts and just before halftime Florent Malouda, who scored the winner in Chelsea's 1-0 home win over Bolton last month, threaded a shot inside the near post from a tight angle.
Anelka seized on a loose ball to lash in the third after 56 minutes and Brazil midfielder Ramires sidefooted in his first goal for the club to complete a repeat last year's 4-0 win on the same ground.
"I took my chance, I had the confidence to try and the manager said to me to shoot when I had the chance," he told Sky Sports.
"Maybe before I was thinking too much, this one I just wanted to shoot."
"We played pretty good football, with a good attitude and this was an important step," he said.
"We are coming back to fight for everything. It's not easy to close the gap but we have to try."
