Chelsea and Manchester City tightened their stranglehold on the Premier League title race on Saturday, recording victories over struggling clubs to stretch further clear of their increasingly forlorn pursuers.
Normal service was resumed at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea maintained their three-point lead over City at the top with goals from Eden Hazard and Diego Costa sinking 10-man Hull City 2-0.
Champions City maintained their ever more convincing chase, sealing their fifth successive league win at bottom club Leicester City 1-0 courtesy of a 40th-minute goal from the evergreen Frank Lampard.
City’s delight, though, was tempered by the likelihood of another spell on the sidelines for captain Vincent Kompany who, on his return after a three-game absence with a hamstring problem, limped off again with the same trouble.
Fourth-placed West Ham’s progress was checked by a 1-1 draw at Sunderland and Southampton lost 1-0 to an Ashley Barnes goal at Burnley.
That left the chasing pack, headed by third-placed Manchester United and West Ham, 11 points behind Chelsea and eight adrift of the champions.
It also put pressure on Louis van Gaal’s United before their match against Liverpool on Sunday.
Chelsea, smarting about their first defeat of the season at Newcastle last weekend, responded with a performance which satisfied manager Jose Mourinho. “It was not a special performance,” said the ‘Special One’. “It was just a good enough performance.”
Much more had been expected when Hazard headed home Oscar’s seventh minute cross but Chelsea were initially sloppy and Steve Bruce ended up unhappy that Chelsea defender Gary Cahill, already on a yellow card, was not sent off after what the Hull manager felt was a blatant dive.
LATE STAMP
Only after Tom Huddlestone was dismissed for a nasty second half stamp on Filipe Luis did Chelsea seal the deal, Costa scoring his 12th goal of the season from a Hazard assist after 68 minutes to make it eight home wins out of eight.
Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini, already without his injured totem Sergio Aguero, was forced to hand a start to Spaniard Jose Pozo, the 18-year-old striker being hailed as the ‘Mini Messi’, after Edin Dzeko pulled up injured in the warm-up.
The youngster, however, found it hard going against Leicester’s committed defenders and it was left to the remarkable Lampard to make the breakthrough.
The midfielder timed his run into the box with predictable efficacy to sidefoot the ball home simply after fine work from Samir Nasri.
The 36-year-old’s latest crucial intervention will not have escaped his old disciples at Chelsea as Lampard’s 175th goal took him to fourth equal on the all-time list of Premier League scorers, an astonishing achievement for a midfielder.
West Ham manager Sam Allardyce was left raging by the award of a 22nd-minute penalty to Sunderland, after Adam Johnson had tumbled rather too easily for his liking. He was even angrier when Jordi Gomez converted.
“It was not a penalty and it is as simple as that,” Allardyce told the BBC. “It was given by the assistant referee and he got it horribly wrong.”
Even though Stewart Downing equalised seven minutes later, the Hammers missed their chance to win when Andy Carroll shot wide in the dying seconds.
After a tremendous start to the season, Southampton’s woes continued with a fourth consecutive defeat. They paid the price after Tom Heaton saved Dusan Tadic’s penalty on the hour and Burnley jumped out of the bottom three with Barnes’s winner.
Crystal Palace’s James McArthur and Stoke’s Peter Crouch swapped early goals in the space of two minutes in a 1-1 whileWest Brom’s Craig Gardner scored a 72nd-minute winner against his old club Aston Villa, who had Kieran Richardson sent off.
From the perspective of the overwhelming pro-Wenger majority Arsenal’s dazzling 4-1 victory over Newcastle United in the Premier League on Saturday was emphatic proof of their mantra “In Arsene We Trust”.
Everywhere you looked at a chilly Emirates Stadium, whether at the artistry of Alexis Sanchez, the magnetic ball control of Santi Cazorla or the old-fashioned striking prowess of Olivier Giroud, there was something to marvel at.
Giroud scored twice, as did Cazorla on his 30th birthday, and the Gunners could have had plenty more against an obliging Newcastle side unrecognisable from that which inflicted a first defeat of the season on league leaders Chelsea last weekend.
In Arsenal’s last home game before Christmas, their Chile forward Sanchez provided several party pieces that would have been toasted in the local hostelries on the Holloway Road.
His precision cross for Giroud’s 15th minute opener simply begged the big Frenchman to power a header past Newcastle’s third-choice goalkeeper, 21-year-old Jak Alnwick who was making only his second competitive apparance for the club.
The striker’s threaded pass to Cazorla for the second goal was that of a man who sees the game with a clarity few possess.
In between there was an outrageous dummy in midfield and a lobbed pass to Danny Welbeck that golfer Phil Mickelson would have been proud of — ruined only by Welbeck volleying wide.
FLIMSY SIDE
Diehard Arsenal fan Brian Harris, who has seen the good times ebb and flow in nearly 70 years of supporting the north London club, was no doubt joining in the chant of “Only One Arsene Wenger” with five minutes remaining.
He was at Stoke City the previous week when Arsenal showed their other, flimsy side, going 3-0 down before rallying to lose 3-2 — a defeat that led to anti-Wenger banners being displayed and the long-serving Frenchman verbally abused after the game.
“Who is there to take his place?” Harris said as he walked towards the magnificent stadium now virtually paid for courtesy of Wenger guiding his side into the lucrative Champions League year after year since taking over in 1996.
“The trouble is a lot of the younger fans have only been used to a lot of success. I went 19 years before I saw us lift a trophy… that’s the difference. They don’t have any patience.
“It will come again but you have to put up with it.”
Yet despite the feelgood factor sweeping the stadium, there were still a few telltale signs of the soft centre that explains why Arsenal are sixth, 13 points behind Chelsea, and all but out of the title race before Christmas.
Newcastle’s Ayoze Perez scored the most basic of goals after 63 minutes, finding space to glance in a header, and for 10 minutes Arsenal’s nerves were a little frayed.
“At 3-1 the ghost of Anderlecht was there a little bit,” Wenger told reporters, referring to a recent Champions League capitulation when Arsenal surrendered a three-goal lead to draw.
There was no repeat of that this time and Cazorla’s cheeky penalty sent the faithful home happy leaving the dissenters to disappear into the shadows.
Reuters
