Chelsea see off Southampton
Chelsea consolidated third place in the Premier League with a 1-0 win over Southampton at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, thanks to a Marcos Alonso goal.
Alonso scored the only goal of the game by curling a long-range free kick past goalkeeper Fraser Forster and into the bottom corner in the third minute of first-half injury time.
Chelsea dominated the match for long periods and would have won by a greater margin had Forster not made a string of impressive saves. Southampton improved after sending on Charlie Austin for Manolo Gabbiadini in the second half but they were unable to snatch an equaliser.
The result extended a poor run of form for Mauricio Pellegrino’s side, who have now gone five matches without a win in the Premier League and have dropped to 12th in the standings. Meanwhile, Belgian striker Christian Benteke made good on his pledge to make amends to his Crystal Palace team mates as he ended his long scoring drought with the first goal in his side’s 3-0 victory at Leicester City on Saturday.
Benteke was the villain of the piece last week when he ignored team orders to take, and miss, a stoppage-time penalty that would have given Palace victory over Bournemouth.
But his headed goal after 18 minutes, his first in 1,106 minutes of Premier League football and Palace’s first on the road this season, paved the way for a victory that lifted Roy Hodgson’s side out of the bottom three. Wilfried Zaha, whose form has helped Palace climb out of trouble, scored a silky second and Bakary Sako was also on target in stoppage time at the King Power Stadium.
“Benteke was very strong. The day after (the penalty miss) he came in and held his hand up, he spoke to the players and myself and made the point that he would make it up to team, and that is what he has done,” Hodgson said.
“We know that he is a quality player and the goal he scored is the sort of one he’s going to score, and had it not been for a wonder-save by Kasper Schmeichel, he would have scored two today because he got in the positions well. —