Man City keeps pace with Premiership-leading Chelsea
MANCHESTER— Chelsea and Manchester City kicked off the Premier League’s hectic festive schedule with commanding victories Friday to keep the title race finely poised, while Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool also won on a successful day for the country’s top teams.
John Terry and Diego Costa scored as Chelsea beat West Ham 2-0 to retain its three-point lead over City, which netted all of its goals in the first half of a 3-1 win at West Bromwich Albion during a snowstorm.
Only United looks capable of gatecrashing the fight for the title between the top two, with Wayne Rooney scoring twice to set up a 3-1 win over Newcastle that tightened the 20-time champions’ grip on third place — seven points behind City. Southampton makes up the top four, climbing above West Ham thanks to a 3-1 win at Crystal Palace, but there are a slew of teams battling for that fourth and final Champions League spot.
Arsenal is only two points behind in sixth after beating Queens Park Rangers 2-1, with Alexis Sanchez making up for his saved penalty and teammate Olivier Giroud’s reckless red card for a head-butt with a goal and an assist at Emirates Stadium.
Liverpool built on recent encouraging performances by eking out a 1-0 win at Burnley through Raheem Sterling’s second-half goal to keep in sight of the top four.
Tottenham and Swansea were other teams in the top half to register wins in the first of three rounds of league fixtures over seven days across the relentless holiday period. In the other games, Stoke beat Everton 1-0 and Hull snapped a 10-game winless run by defeating Sunderland 3-1 to climb out of the relegation zone.
Leicester’s miserable season back in the top flight continued with a 2-1 home loss to Spurs, leaving the team in last place and six points from safety. A winless run of 13 games is piling the pressure on Nigel Pearson, who is the British bookmakers’ favourite to become the first manager fired in the Premier League this season.