Soccer: Wigan rout seals title for Chelsea

LONDON - Chelsea regained the Premier League title from Manchester United with a 8-0 victory over Wigan today with Didier Drogba scoring three times.

Even though United finished the campaign with a 4-0 victory over Stoke at Old Trafford, the big celebrations were at Stamford Bridge where goals by Drogba, two by Nicolas Anelka and one each by Frank Lampard, Salomon Kalou and Ashley Cole left Chelsea champions by one point in manager Carlo Ancelotti's first season in English football.

It is Chelsea's third league title in six years - the others being under Jose Mourinho in 2005 and `06 - and the result means it prevented United becoming the first team to win the English title four years in a row.

"After 1-0 today that was the first time I thought, `Yes, that's ours,"' said Chelsea captain John Terry, whose private life brought distracting headlines to the club and led to him losing the England captaincy.

"Forget everything else, this is about Chelsea Football Club and our day today," Terry said. "It has been a hard three years not winning the Premiership and today we deserved it. It's been hurting inside of me for three years, seeing Man United lifting it season after season."

Now Ancelotti hopes to complete Chelsea's first league and FA Cup double by beating Portsmouth in Sunday's (NZT) final at Wembley.

"There are a lot of things we're happy about," said the former AC Milan coach. "We're happy for this record, for Didier being the top scorer. But the most important thing is that we showed some good play.

"Mourinho did some fantastic work and won two titles consecutively. This is my first and I hope to do the same as Mourinho. Now we have the opportunity to win the double and I hope that my players can, after these celebrations."

Chelsea went into the final round one point ahead of United after a see-sawing season, and Anelka fired Ancelotti's team into a sixth-minute lead.

Although Darren Fletcher put United a goal up at Old Trafford in the 31st, within a minute it was 2-0 at Stamford Bridge.

Lampard scored from the penalty spot for his 22nd league goal of the season after he had been brought down by Gary Caldwell. The Scottish defender was also sent off for the challenge, which made United's hopes of a Wigan comeback even slimmer.

Ryan Giggs scored a second for United before halftime but the goal celebrations were muted. News of further Chelsea goals by Salomon Kalou, Anelka, Drogba and Ashley Cole made the atmosphere worse at Old Trafford, with United's fans turning their attention to chanting their opposition to the club's ownership by Malcolm Glazer and his family.

Outside Old Trafford before the game, fans let off at least one smoke bomb in protest at the Glazers, who have landed the club with an enormous debt to finance their purchase of the club.

United manager Alex Ferguson saluted Ancelotti for his achievement.

"When we heard Wigan was down to 10 men, our hopes evaporated then," Ferguson said. "We know how difficult it is to win the Premier League and that's why we congratulate Carlo Ancelotti and his team.

"It's a great achievement to beat Manchester United. Losing this title makes you appreciate the achievement of winning the last three and also getting so near. We've got to try again."

Drogba finished the campaign as leading scorer with 29 goals, three more than longtime leader Wayne Rooney, who failed to hit the target for Man United against Stoke and limped off the field with an injury,

It was the fourth time this season Chelsea has hit at least seven goals, the other victims being Sunderland, Aston Villa and Stoke.

Arsenal made sure of finishing third ahead of north London neighbour Tottenham with a 4-0 victory over a weakened Fulham side, which is headed for Thursday's Europa League final against Atletico Madrid in Hamburg.

Andrei Arshavin, Robin van Persie and an own-goal by Fulham's Chris Board put Arsenal in control by halftime, and Carlos Vela later added a fourth.

The victory means that Arsene Wenger's team, which has failed to win a trophy for the fifth season in a row, will now go straight into the group phase of the Champions League

Tottenham threw away a two-goal lead after early strikes by Gareth Bale and Luka Modric to lose 4-2 at relegated Burnley and has to be satisfied with fourth place, its highest finish since placing third in 1990.

Another relegated side, Hull held Liverpool to a 0-0 draw. Portsmouth, which finished last, conceded an injury-time winner to Diniyar Bilyaletdinov to lose 1-0 at Everton.

In today's other games, Manchester City was held 1-1 at West Ham, Blackburn won 1-0 at Aston Villa, Bolton beat Birmingham 2-1 and Wolves edged Sunderland 2-1.

In the playoffs to decide the third team to gain promotion to the top flight, Peter Whittingham's 78th-minute free kick gave Cardiff a 1-0 victory at Leicester in the first leg. In the other semifinal, Blackpool leads Nottingham Forest 2-1.

Newcastle and West Bromwich Albion have already gained promotion from the League Championship after finishing first and second.

- AP