Chelsea keep lead with Bournemouth victory
TOTTENHAM THRASH WATFORD, PILE ON PRESSURE
helsea re-established their seven-point lead at the top of the Premier League with a comfortable 3-1 win at Bournemouth yesterday.
Chelsea blitzed the hosts in the opening exchanges and led when Diego Costa’s sliced 17thminute effort deflected in off Bournemouth defender Adam Smith before Eden Hazard ghosted through to add a sublime second in the 20th minute.
In the 42nd minute, Josh King pulled a goal back, his 10th in 11 games, via a deflection for the plucky hosts, who had chances to equalise after the break until Marcos Alonso curled home a perfect 68th minute freekick to seal the Blues’ win.
With seven games remaining, Chelsea have 75 points, seven clear of Tottenham Hotspur. The pack chasing Premier League leaders Chelsea all won yesterday with second-placed Tottenham Hotspur’s 4-0 mauling of Watford most significant as it reduced the gap at the top to four points.
On a day of unbroken sunshine across the country, Tottenham’s South Korean forward Son Heung-min scored twice as the north London side chalked
Premier League Yesterday’s matches:
Tottenham Man City Middlesbrough Stoke Tottenham West Brom West Ham Chelsea 4 3 0 1 4 0 1 3 Watford Hull Burnley Liverpool Watford Southampton Swansea Bournemouth 0 1 0 2 0 1 0 1
up a sixth successive victory to turn up the heat on Chelsea.
Fourth-placed Manchester City ended a four-game run without a league win as they beat relegation-threatened Hull City 3-1 with Sergio Aguero among the scorers at The Etihad Stadium.
Liverpool, who are third but have played more games than their rivals, left it late as substitutes Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino earned a precious 2-1 victory at Stoke City.
At the bottom West Ham United eased their relegation fears when they ended a five-match losing streak with a 1-0 victory over third-from-bottom Swansea City at London Stadium.
Second-from-bottom Middlesbrough’s hopes of beating the drop are slipping away though after they could only draw 0-0 at home to Burnley -- stretching their winless run to 14 league games.
Tottenham kicked off the day’s action at White Hart Lane and for 33 minutes it looked as though Watford could frustrate Mauricio Pochettino’s side’s ambitions of reeling in Chelsea.
Top-notch finishes
Dele Alli then scored a superb goal -- his 16th of the season in the league -- before Eric Dier and Son made it 3-0 before halftime with top-notch finishes. Son, who had become the first South Korean to score 10 goals in a Premier League season, scored again after the break.
Tottenham’s 11th consecutive home league win and seventh league victory in which they have scored at least four goals put them on 68 points and had Pochettino purring.
Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp made the surprise decision to leave out Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino at Stoke and when Jonathan Walters gave the hosts the lead just before halftime it appeared to be a costly decision.The two Brazilians both struck in the second half, however — Firmino with a superb lob — as Liverpool hit back to move to 63 points.