Blues keep in touch with victory over Saints
● Chelsea kept their faint English Premier League title hopes alive with a 1-0 win over Southampton, and Mesut Özil’s stunning strike fired Arsenal to a 1-0 victory over Newcastle United yesterday.
At Stamford Bridge, Chelsea sealed a second successive win to go level on points with second-placed Manchester United, who face West Bromwich Albion today.
After a tame opening from the champions, who started with star striker Alvaro Morata on the bench following a back injury, Antonio Conte’s side finally opened the scoring in first-half stoppage time.
Leftback Marcos Alonso provided the breakthrough, the Spaniard curling a freekick past flat-footed Saints goalkeeper Fraser Forster from 35m.
The Blues have won eight of their last 10 league matches, but Manchester City remain out of reach for now.
At the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal won for the first time in four league matches to boost their bid to qualify for the Champions League via a top-four finish.
Heavily linked with a move to Manchester United when his contract expires at the end of the season, Özil showcased his talents when he put Arsenal ahead in the 23rd minute.
After an Alexis Sánchez shot deflected into Özil’s path, the German midfield player smashed a superb volley past Newcastle goalkeeper Rob Elliot from the edge of the area for his third goal of the season.
Newcastle’s eighth defeat in their last nine league matches leaves manager Rafael Benitez’s side in relegation trouble.
Brighton and Hove Albion’s Glenn Murray missed a penalty in his team’s 0-0 draw against high-flying Burnley at the Amex Stadium. Murray won a first-half penalty when he was fouled by James Tarkowski, but couldn’t take advantage as he blazed the spot-kick high over the crossbar.
Huddersfield Town thrashed 10-man Watford 4-1 to record their first away win since the opening day of the season.
Elias Kachunga got Huddersfield’s first away goal since August, poking in after Watford failed to clear a sixth-minute corner.
Congolese striker Kachunga was stretchered off soon after, but the Terriers doubled their lead through Aaron Mooy’s close-range finish in the 23rd minute.
A bad afternoon for Watford got worse when Troy Deeney was sent off by referee Michael Oliver for a lunge on Collin Quaner in the 33rd minute, making it three red cards in their last three matches.
Laurent Depoitre got Huddersfield’s third in the 50th minute before the visitors had Jonathan Hogg sent off for a second booking.
Watford’s Abdoulaye Doucoure got one back with a powerful 68th-minute strike, but Mooy’s 89th-minute penalty wrapped up the points.
Belgian Christian Benteke put his penalty misery behind him to inspire Crystal Palace to a first away win of the season as 10-man Leicester City were beaten 3-0 at the King Power Stadium.
Benteke scored his first goal since May in a victory that came a week after he defied team orders by taking and missing a crucial penalty against Bournemouth. After the striker’s 19th-minute opener, he set up Wilfred Zaha for a 40th-minute goal, with Bakary Sako adding the third in the final moments as Palace moved up to 14th place.
Leicester had birthday boy Wilfred Ndidi sent off for diving in the second half.
Stoke City’s home match against West Ham United was delayed until 4pm after a power outage plunged the bet365 Stadium into darkness before kick-off.
Nerazzurri brought down to earth
Inter Milan lost their unbeaten Serie A status after a shock 3-1 home defeat by Udinese yesterday afternoon.
In a late kickoff, Napoli beat Torino 3-1 to leapfrog the Nerazzurri (40 points) into first place for the first time this season. After the loss, Torino are sitting ninth in the log table.
Thanks to a Rodrigo de Paul penalty and Antonin Barak tap-in, adding to Kevin Lasagna’s opener, Udinese are 11th in the log table with 21 points. Mauro Icardi scored a consolation for hosts Inter.
The loss for manager Luciano Spalletti’s side also gives third-placed Juventus the opportunity to leapfrog their old rivals Inter at Bologna today.
“We work for a win the whole week, so when you achieve that aim, it means you’ve done well and that you had a bit of luck on your side as well,” said Udinese manager Massimo Oddo.
Inter looked like they were set to maintain their unbeaten record and momentarily extend their lead at the top when hot-shot Icardi levelled the scores with his 18th goal of the season, a smart volley just 71 seconds after Lasagna’s 14th-minute opener.
But despite dominating, the hosts could not find the breakthrough, and were punished just after the hour mark.
Inter defender Davide Santon compounded a poor display by handballing Silvan Widmer’s cross, and after referee Maurizio Mariani consulted the video assistant referee to check that the ball had not gone out before the Udinese rightback reached the ball, he awarded the penalty from which De Paul gave the away side the lead.
Inter almost levelled in the 68th minute when Milan Skriniar thumped Antonio Candreva’s cross off the bar, but were punished when Barak finished a lightning break with 13 minutes left to sink the home side.
“We did much better in the second half. Inter caused us problems but eventually we settled and improved considerably,” said Oddo, after his side made it three wins in a row. “We played on the counterattack a lot, but that is a wise tactic against a side like Inter.”