Chelsea and Manchester City kicked off the Premier League’s hectic festive period with commanding victories on Friday to keep the title race finely poised, while Manchester United 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 United 2-0 at Stamford Bridge to retain a three-point lead over City, who scored all of their goals in the first half in a 3-1 win at West Bromwich Albion in blizzard-like conditions — Fernando, Yaya Toure and David Silva on target for the champions. United stayed on the edge of the title race as two goals from Wayne Rooney helped set up a 3-1 win over Newcastle United, tightening the 20-time champions’ grip on third place.
West Ham’s loss allowed Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, Swansea City and Liverpool to make ground in the race for the top four. Southampton’s return to form was underlined by a 3-1 victory at Crystal Palace which lifted the Saints back into the top four while Liverpool built on their recent encouraging performances by winning 1-0 at Burnley. Tottenham beat bottom club Leicester City 2-1 for a third successive league win — Harry Kane again on target for the London club who moved up to sixth, just ahead of Swansea City who beat Aston Villa 1-0.
Chelsea moved to 45 points from 18 games, three more than champions City and 10 ahead of United. “Football is football, you never know and the only thing we can do to try to reduce the unpredictability of football is to do what we’re doing: playing very well,” Mourinho said.
The first half hour was one-way traffic and the only surprise was that Chelsea did not score before Terry turned the ball over the line after Costa flicked on a Cesc Fabregas corner. It was Terry’s second goal in successive league games.
Costa, whose goal tally had slowed in recent weeks after an explosive start to his Chelsea career, showed his pedigree when he received a pass from Eden Hazard just past the hour mark and lashed a left-foot shot past goalkeeper Adrian. Chelsea had numerous other chances to score with West Ham’s only flurry coming near the end when substitute Morgan Amalfitano dinked an effort against the post.
City responded emphatically and were out of sight before halftime at West Brom. West Brom keeper Ben Foster dropped the ball at the feet of Fernando after eight minutes to gift the visitors their opener and Toure’s spot-kick made it 2-0. Silva stroked in the third after 34 minutes to end the game as a contest before Brown Ideye scored a late consolation.
We will be seeing a lot of more matches before New Year’s Eve, so Sunday’s fixtures. And after wards Liverpool game against Everton on Monday night will b as well 8th position decider or could be a less or an above ,it will depend on Sunday’s games.
