N’Golo Kante’s second-half goal gave Chelsea a 1-0 win at Crystal Palace on Sunday to strengthen its grip on fourth place in the Premier League. After a frustrating first half for the visitors, Kante provided the breakthrough when he ran onto a ball over the top from David Luiz in the 51st minute, chested it down with his first touch and slotted the ball under goalkeeper Vicente Guaita with his second
A Roberto Firmino hat-trick with a further strike from Sadio Mane and a penalty from Mohamed Salah following before halftime. proved the highlight of Liverpool’s 5-1 demolition of Arsenal as the Premier League leaders opened a nine-point gap over Tottenham Hotspur, who lost 3-1 to Wolverhampton Wanderers at Wembley. The Midlands team hit the home side with three goals in 18 second-half minutes through Wily Boly, Raul Jimenez and Helder Costa as Wembley was silenced, along with talk of Tottenham’s title challenge. Harry Kane who has been honoured with an MBE scored the Spurs goal.
Man-of-the-match Paul Pogba scored twice as Manchester United beat Bournemouth 4-1 at Old Trafford to maintain Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s 100 per cent start as caretaker manager. Pogba had United ahead on five minutes, finishing off from close range after magnificent skill by Marcus Rashford, and he added a second on 33 minutes, heading home a wicked Ander Herrera cross ahead of Asmir Begovic. Rashford got in on the act with a deft touch on the stretch from Anthony Martial’s brilliant lofted pass (45), but United failed to keep a clean sheet for the eighth straight game as Nathan Ake’s header made it 3-1 (45+2).
Manchester City got its faltering Premier League title defense back on track with a 3-1 win at Southampton David Silva and Sergio Aguero scored for the visitors, who also benefited from a fortunate own-goal by James Ward-Prowse.
Southampton finished the game with 10 men after Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, who had scored the team’s equalizer, was sent off
Burnley ended a three-game losing streak with a 2-0 win over West Ham in the Premier League on Sunday to boost its hopes of climbing out of the relegation zone. Chris Wood and Dwight McNeil scored in the first half
Struggling Cardiff City and Fulham bolstered their survival chances with added-time goals in 1-0 wins at Leicester City and home to Huddersfield Town respectively. Aleksandar Mitrovic scored the winner for Fulham in stoppage time.
At Leicester, Cardiff’s Neil Etheridge saved James Maddison’s 75th minute penalty to set up a victory secured by Victor Camarasa’s stunning stoppage time strike for the Welsh side, who are now four points above the drop zone.
Brighton finish the year comfortably in mid-table after Juergen Locadia’s second-half goal was enough to see off Everton.
At Vicarage Road, the sought-after substitute Abdoulaye Doucoure scored Watford’s equaliser before then wasting a late chance as the home side almost secured a comeback win against Newcastle.
