Chelsea maintained their nine-point advantage at the top of the Premier League table with a comfortable 3-1 win over Arsenal on Saturday.

Chelsea took the lead through Marcos Alonso in the 13th minute with close range header.

Eden Hazard made it 2-0 in the 53rd minute as a breathtaking individual run that began in his own half.

Former Arsenal striker Cesc Fabregas made it 3-0 as he lobbed the ball past his former Chelsea keeper Petr Cech who put the ball in the striker’s path after a poor clearance.

Arsenal pulled one back in stoppage time as Olivier Giroud found the back of the net. But it was too little too late as Arsenal fell 12 points behind the league leaders virtually ending their hopes of winning the title.

Liverpool slump to 2-0 loss at Hull City

Liverpool’s terrible run in 2017 continued with their fourth defeat in five games as Hull City prevailed 2-0 over them in a Premier League match on Saturday.

Hull City opened the scoring through debutant Alfred N’Diaye tapped in after keeper Simon Mignolet dropped the ball in his path.

They doubled the lead through Oumar Niasse in the 84th minute to secure three points.

Liverpool were poor throughout the game and failed to create any good chance. The loss means they now trail leaders Chelsea by 13 points and have no real hopes of clinching the title.

Lukaku scores four as Everton beat Bournemouth 6-3

Romelu Lukaku scored four goals as Everton beat AFC Bournemouth 6-3 in a thrilling contest at Goodison Park.

Lukaku netted the opening goal after just 30 seconds to equal the record for the fastest league goal of the season.

He set up James McCarthy for Everton’s second before adding another to take Everton into the break three goals up.

Bournemouth scored twice as Joshua King scored a brace to give Bournemouth some hope, but Lukaku had other ideas as he drilled in two more to make it 5-2.

Bournemouth got another back through Harry Arter, but Everton’s Ross Barkley slotted the team’s sixth to put the game to bed.

This was Everton’s seventh straight win and took them to 40 points two behind Manchester United.

Lionel Messi breaks Barcelona’s free-kick record

Lionel Messi on Saturday surpassed Ronald Koeman’s tally of 26 strikes to become Barcelona’s most prolific free-kick goal-scorer during the team’s La Liga tie against Athletic Bilbao.

Messi scored the second goal on the night after the Catalan’s had taken the lead through Paco Alcacer.

The Argentine stepped up to take a free-kick from the right side of the penalty box, converting an improbable goal.

Aleix Vidal added a third to seal all three points and score Barcelona’s 100th competitive goal of the season so far.