From the top four teams this weekend, only one was playing at home and that was Manchester City who failed to grab three valuable points. Saturday was busy with Chelsea visiting Swansea, Manchester United visiting Queens Park Rangers, and Southampton visiting Newcastle. On Sunday, Manchester City had Arsenal visiting Etihad Airways Stadium.
Swansea City 0-5 Chelsea
Jose Mourinho and his Blues comfortably defeated their opponent and continued to remain as leaders. Within seconds of the opening kickoff, Oscar was given a ball and took it towards the box before placing a beautiful shot towards Lukasz Fabianski‘s bottom right corner to open the scoring.
Twenty minutes later, a wonderful passing triangle was led by the Premier’s League top assist player Cesc Fabregas, who connected well with William and Oscar to set up the league’s scoring leader Diego Costa, who finished towards Fabianski’s bottom right post.
In the 34th minute, a misplaced pass from Federico Fernandez ended up at Costa’s as he was trying to pass it back to Fabianski. Costa beat the goalkeeper at his near post one more time, sending Fabianski the wrong way.
Two minutes later, William played the ball towards the right side to Costa, who waited as Oscar ran towards the outside of the eighteen before delivering a one-touch pass. Oscar hit it first time to make it 4-0.
The first half ended 4-0, and Chelsea were looking solid. In the 79th minute, Andre Schurrle sealed the game and made it 5-0. Chelsea continues to lead the Premier League with 52 points, five points above Manchester City who is currently second.
Queens Park Rangers 0-2 Manchester United
With the return of Radamel Falcao, the Red Devils picked up another victory to remain in 4th place with 40 points. The first half was dominated by the Red Devils, but it remained 0-0 at the half. Things looked better for Manchester in the second half after Juan Mata was subbed at half for Marouane Fellaini.
United opened the scoring 13 minutes after the, when Antonio Valencia made a run into the QPR box and crossed it into the middle to Fellaini, who volleyed the ball home.
In the 90th minute, James Wilson put away his own rebound following to secure the win and three valuable points on the road for the Red Devils.
Newcastle United 1-2 Southampton
Southampton beat Newcastle in St. James’ Park and continues to be in a Champions League qualifying position at 3rd in the Premier League. The Saints led by Ronald Koeman won with two goals by the new striker Eljero Elia who was just bought in the winter transfer window.
Fourteen minutes into the game, Elia got a through-ball and as he was sliding down, hit it with his right foot and beat Tim Krul to make it one-nil.
15 minutes later, Newcastle tied up the game after some defensive confusion between the Saints backline and their goalkeeper. A Newcastle through pass looked harmless, but Florin Gardos chose to slide and clear the ball, even though goalkeeper Fraser Foster was coming out to pick up the ball. As Gardos tried to clear the ball, Yoan Gouffran managed to make contact, and the ball ended up dropping into the empty net to level the score.
In the 62nd minute, Elia gave the Saints the victory, and they continue to remain 3rd in the Premier League.
Manchester City 0-2 Arsenal
The Citizens had a tough matchup at home and were looking for a victory to remain close to the current leaders Chelsea.
Things did not look too good for City in the beginning of the first half when Vincent Kompany brought Nacho Monreal down in the box. Santi Cazorla beat Joe Hart to his left to make it one nil.
Arsenal continued to play defensively, not giving City a lot of space in the midfield. In the 67th minute, Cazorla took a free-kick and crossed the ball to Oliver Giroud who beat Fernando in the air and made it 2-0. City’s back line got caught ball-watching and left Hart no time to react.
Arsene Wenger and his Gunners picked up three valuable points against one of the top four teams and remain 5th, just one point behind Manchester United who sit in 4th.
(Feature image: premierleague.com)
(All video: NBC Sports)