On a day when 24 goals were scored across six games, it was Chelsea who had the most decisive result, taking another giant stride towards the title while dealing a massive blow to Manchester City’s title aspirations with a 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, Liverpool’s failure to hold a lead against Bournemouth also sees them lose ground in the title race as Josh King’s 87th-minute strike was enough to give the Cherries a share of the points.
Tottenham Hotspur finished with a flourish after trailing for 77 minutes, as Dele Alli, Son-Heung Min and Christian Eriksen all netted in the final seven minutes. Spurs’ win means they are the only remaining team with an outside chance to catch Chelsea.
At Stamford Bridge, Eden Hazard netted in the tenth minute to give Chelsea an early lead; a cutback from Cesar Azpilicueta finding the Belgian with space and time to shoot. Hazard’s shot took a deflection from returning City skipper Vincent Kompany which took it past a flailing Willy Caballero.
Sergio Aguero equalised for City when Thibaut Courtois spilt David Silva’s shot straight into the striker’s path, who made no mistake in tucking it away. Minutes later, Fernandinho would give away a penalty which Hazard missed, but put away the rebound to restore Chelsea’s advantage. The match would end that way, with Chelsea on 72 points from 30 games, while City are 14 points behind.
At Anfield, Benik Afobe placed his shot beyond Simon Mignolet to give the visitors an early lead. Phillipe Coutinho scored for the second game running. Divock Origi, enjoying a rare start headed home from a Georginio Wijnaldum cross to give the Reds a lead. Norwegian striker Josh King had the final laugh though with a 87th-minute equaliser.
Spurs fell behind to a Wayne Routledge goal early on but rallied to snatch all three points in Wales as they coped without Harry Kane’s presence. Arsenal’s 3-0 win over West Ham pushed them up to fifth on goal difference.
Brief Scores:
- Chelsea 2 (Eden Hazard X 2) beat Manchester City 1 (Sergio Aguero)
- Arsenal 3 (Mesut Ozil, Theo Walcott, Olivier Giroud) beat West Ham 0
- Liverpool 2 (Phillipe Coutinho, Divock Origi) drew with Bournemouth 2 (Benik Afobe, Josh King)
- Swansea City 1 (Wayne Routledge) lost to Tottenham Hotspur 3 (Dele Alli, Son-Heung Min, Christian Eriksen)
- Southampton 3 (Nathan Redmond, Maya Yoshida, James Ward-Prowse) beat Crystal Palace 1 (Christian Benteke)
- Hull City 4 (Lazar Markovic, Oumar Niasse, Abel Hernandez, Harry Maguire) beat Middlesbrough 2 (Alvaro Negredo, Maarten de Roon)