Chelsea make it four wins in a row in the Premier League
Chelsea have moved into fourth place in the Premier League with a 2-0 victory away at Southampton.
Goals in either half from Eden Hazard and Diego Costa made the difference as the Blues recorded their fourth successive win in the Premier League.
The West London outfit needed just 30 seconds to take the lead against Manchester United last weekend but Antonio Conte would have had no complaints with his side taking six minutes to open the scoring yesterday afternoon.
After Hazard was found on the right-hand side of the penalty area, he went past Steven Davis to move the ball onto his left foot before driving a low shot through the legs of Fraser Forster.
Southampton responded well but aside from a Charlie Austin header which went wide, they struggled to create chances in open play and their best effort came from a Dusan Tadic free kick which was saved by Thibaut Courtois.
It was all Chelsea at the start of the second half and moments after Marcos Alonso had dragged a shot well wide of the post, the Blues doubled their advantage through Costa.
Hazard had wanted his teammate to play a one-two on the edge of the penalty area but the Spaniard had other ideas as he curled the ball into the far corner from 25 yards.
Southampton also had their moments but aside from a header from Austin which went over and a deflected Davis effort which struck the top of the crossbar, the home side struggled to pose the Blues defence too many problems.
Everton cruise past West Ham as Romelu Lukaku proves the difference once again
The Everton striker scored a close-range header in the 50th minute to set his team on its way to a 2-0 win over West Ham and a first Premier League victory in five games. Advertisement It was Lukaku's ninth game against West Ham for Everton — and he has scored in every one of them.
The Belgium international also was the provider for Everton's second goal, sending a cross over for Ross Barkley to prod home at the back post in the 76th minute.
Everton stayed sixth, five points off a trio of teams — Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool — at the top of standings.
The game was closely fought until Yannick Bolasie showed determination to pounce on a loose ball following West Ham goalkeeper Adrian's parried save, and clipped the ball back into the area for Lukaku to head into an unguarded net.
That was Lukaku's seventh goal in his last seven league games and his 50th in the league for Everton.
Adrian was slightly at fault
Yesterday Everton-West Ham .......................... 2-0 Lukaku 50’, Barkley 76’ Southampton-Chelsea .................... 0-2 Hazard 6’, Costa 55’
Standings
Man. City Arsenal Liverpool Chelsea Tottenham Everton Watford Man. United Southampton Bournemouth Leicester Crystal Palace Burnley M’brough West Brom West Ham Stoke City Hull City Swansea Sunderland 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 9 10 9 10
Championship 7 7 7 7 5 5 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 3 2 2 1 0 2 2 2 1 5 3 3 3 4 3 3 2 2 4 4 1 3 1 2 2 1 24 9 23 1 23 10 23 1 24 13 23 2 21 9 22 0 14 5 20 2 15 8 18 3 14 13 15 3 13 12 15 3 11 10 13 4 12 14 12 4 12 16 12 5 14 16 11 5 813 11 4 911 10 4 10 14 10 6 10 19 10 4 9 16 9 7 8 23 7 6 8 15 5 8 7 20 2
Yesterday Birmingham-Aston Villa .................... 1-1
there, although he had already produced one of the saves of the season.
Midway through the first half, Barkley found his way into space in the center of the area and sent in a fierce shot that took a deflection, only for Adrian to show great reflexes to block it with an outstretched arm.
West Ham had won its previous two games.