English giants Manchester United and Chelsea suffered setbacks at home despite dominating possession and creating a host of chances in their respective games on Saturday.
Hull City will end the weekend as one of the big victors after winning 2-1 at home to West Ham United, which put them on the brink of breaking out of the relegation zone. There was no such luck for bottom-placed Sunderland, though, who slumped to a 0-1 defeat at the hands of Watford.
Meanwhile, Leicester City boss Craig Shakespeare made history by becoming the first English manager to win his first four league games as his side coasted to a 2-0 win against Stoke City. Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham Hotspur had to battle hard before downing Burnley 2-0 at Turf Moor.
Chelsea humbled at the Bridge
It looked like the Blues were heading for another routine when Cesc Fabregas broke the deadlock in the game as early as the third minute.
Crystal Palace hit back through two quick-fire goals through the brilliant Christian Benteke and Wilfred Zaha. Chelsea saw much of the ball and tested Wayne Hennessey’s goal on multiple occasions but were unable to break Palace’s robust defence.
Mamadou Sakho in particular, put in an inspired show screening the goal and keeping the deadly Diego Costa quiet. With Tottenham’s win, Chelsea’s lead has been cut down to seven points.
United frustrated by steely West Brom
Jose Mourinho and Manchester United ran into yet another roadblock during their hunt for a top four spot at Old Trafford. Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford got decent opportunities to land the decisive goal but the West Bromwich Albion’s defence stood firm.
Former United keeper Ben Foster put in yet another inspired display between the sticks to thwart United, who are now four points adrift of city rivals Manchester City in fourth.
Brief score:
- Chelsea 1 (Cesc Fabregas) lose to Crystal Palace 2 (Wilfred Zaha, Christian Benteke)
- Burnley 0 lose to Tottenham Hotspur 2 (Eric Dier, Son Heung-min)
- Manchester United 0 draw with West Bromwich Albion 0
- Hull City 2 (Andrew Robertson, Andrea Ranocchia) beat West Ham United 1 (Andy Carroll)
- Leicester City 2 (Wilfred Ndidi, Jamie Vardy) beat Stoke City 0
- Watford 1 (Miguel Britos) beat Sunderland 0