Premier League: Chelsea 1 Bolton 0

Florent Malouda ended Chelsea’s miserable run and eased the pressure on manager Carlo Ancelotti with a winner over Bolton on Wednesday.

Malouda scored the only goal of the game to send his team back to fourth in the English Premier League, though the Blues once again failed to convince.

Chelsea, fresh from a mauling at title rivals Arsenal, faced the prospect of slipping to sixth in the table if they had lost at Stamford Bridge.

But Frenchman Malouda saved the day by side footing home a low Didier Drogba cross in the 61st minute, even though his team-mate looked suspiciously offside from a Michael Essien through-ball.

It was a major relief for Malouda – who hadn’t scored a league goal since October – and an even more so for Chelsea, with the victory ending their worst run of results in the Roman Abramovich era.

Ancelotti’s side are still four points behind leaders Manchester United with a game more played, but at least the result keeps them in the hunt going into Sunday’s home game against struggling Aston Villa.

It was far-from-polished performance from the champions, who took an hour to come to life and saw Bolton create the better chances until then.

But at least it was win.

The visitors will point to a string of close shaves, including a header from Stuart Holden that was tipped over the bar by Petr Cech in the second half, a bad miss from Sam Ricketts and a far post header from Gary Cahill that could so easily have ended up in the net.

But Chelsea, who also hit the post through Didier Drogba after 50 minutes, were happy to take the points and draw a line under what until now has been a miserable December.