On Saturday, all the seven matches gave results with 21 goals to boot.
Another trend was, the visitors gonna winning! Chelsea, Crystal Palace,
Liverpool, Manchester United, Southampton and Stoke City won on the
road, while Tottenham winning at home against Sunderland. Hence it was not a good day for local watchers in stadium as all the locals had to face the loss.
After the day's actions, Chelsea consolidated their lead at the top
and are now five points ahead of defending champions Manchester City,
who will welcome Arsenal tomorrow.
Southampton continued their excellent run by defeating Newcastle 2-1. The Saints are now in third place, ahead of United.
FULL-TIME UPDATE: Newcastle United 1 - 2 Southampton
English Premier League 2014-15
Newcastle (Gouffran 29') 1 - 2 (Elia 14', 62') Southampton: Saints are marching again. Ducthman Elia scored his second of the day to help Southampton take a goal lead.
HALF-TIME UPDATE: Newcastle United 1 - 1 Southampton
Newcastle (Gouffran 29') 1 - 1 (Elia 14') Southampton: Newcastle hit back with a Yoan Gouffran goal from a defensive mixed-up.
Newcastle 0 - 1 (Elia 14') Southampton: The Saints have taken the lead at Newcastle with Eljero Elia scoring his first goal for the visitors.
Newcastle vs Southampton starting line-up:
Newcastle XI: Krul; Janmaat, Coloccini, Dummett, Haidara; Sissoko, Anita, Colback; Cabella, Perez, Gouffran
Southampton XI: Forster, Clyne, Fonte, Gardos, Bertrand, Reed, S. Davis, Ward-Prowse, Tadic, Elia, Pelle
FULL TIME UPDATES
Tottenham 2-1 Sunderland
Burnley FC 2-3 Crystal Palace
Aston Villa 0-2 Liverpool
Leicester City 0-1 Stoke City
Swansea City 0-5 Chelsea
Queens Park Rangers 0-2 Manchester United
QPR 0 - 1 (Fellaini 59', Wilson 90+4' ) Man Utd: James Wilson scored injury time goal to seal Red Devils third away win of the season.
Tottenham (Vertonghen 3', Ericson 88') 2 - 1 (Larsson 31') Sunderland: A late goal from Christian Eriksen helped Spurs collect all three points.
Burnley (Mee 12', Ings 16') 2 - 3 (Gayle 28', 87' Puncheon 48') Crystal Palace: Gayle probably scores the winning goal against Burnley. Puncheon provided the assist.
Swansea City 0 - 5 (Oscar 1', 36'; Costa 20', 35', Schurrle 79') Chelsea: German World Cup winner Andre Schurrle joined the fun at Swansea with a goal. It's 5-0 in favour of Blues from London.
Leicester City 0 - 1 (Krkic 63') Stoke City: Former Barcelona starlet Bojan Krkic scored a sumptuous goal form the goal-mouth to give Stoke lead at Leicester.
QPR 0 - 1 (Fellaini 59') Man Utd: The Belgian sub Marouane Fellaini broke the deadlock in Loftus Road stadium following a Valencia run in.
Burnley (Mee 12', Ings 16') 2 - 2 (Gayle 28', Puncheon 48') Crystal Palace: Cracker of a game in Burnley. Jason Puncheon drew score board level with a low strike from the edge of the box.
This is the first time Chelsea score four first-half goals in a Premier League match, since beating Arsenal 6-0 in March 2014.
Swansea City 0 - 4 (Oscar 1', 36'; Costa 20', 35') Chelsea:
Blues are running havoc in Wales. Both Oscar and Costa have registered
themselves a brace each. Their respective second goals coming within a
space of minute. Aweful defending from the home side.
Tottenham (Vertonghen 3') 1 - 1 (Larsson 31') Sunderland: Superb
free-kcik from Seb Larsson. Spurs' scorer was in guilty party fouling
inspirations Defoe, which resulted in the free-kick.
Burnley (Mee 12', Ings 16') 2 - 1 (Gayle 28') Crystal Palace: Dwight Gayle pulled one back for London club with a superb finish from a Zaha delivery.
Aston Villa 0 - 1 (Borini 24') Liverpool: Brendan Rodgers is certainly a happy man now. Fabio Borini scored to give Liverpool a deserving lead against the Villans.
Swansea City 0 - 2 (Oscar 1'; Costa 20') Chelsea:
Diego Costa continues his rich form. He laced onto a Cesc Fabregas
set-up to control the match. And it was former Barcelona player's 15th
assist of the season.
Burnley (Mee 12', Ings 16') 2 - 0 Crystal Palace:
Two quick goals for Burnley at home. First Ben Mee headed home from a
corner, than four minutes later, Danny Ings scored from a brilliant pass
from Arfield.
Tottenham (Vertonghen 3') 1 - 0 Sunderland: A lucky goal for Spurs. Jan Vertonghen got his name onto score sheet following a deflection goal.
Swansea City 0 - 1 (Oscar 1') Chelsea: League
leaders have taken a first minute lead against the Swans at Liberty
Stadium. Oscar drilled through the defence following a silly mistake by
Sigurdsson.
Team line-ups for the 8:30 PM IST matches
Tottenham vs Sunderland
Tottenham XI: Lloris (c); Walker, Dier, Vertonghen, Rose; Dembele, Stambouli; Chadli, Kane, Eriksen; Soldado
Sunderland XI: Pantilimon, Jones, van Aanholt, Brown, O'Shea (c), Vergini, Larsson, Rodwell, Johnson, Fletcher, Defoe
Burnley FC vs Crystal Palace
Burnley XI: Heaton; Trippier, Shackell, Keane, Mee; Boyd, Marney, Jones, Arfield; Barnes, Ings
Crystal Palace XI: Speroni, Ward, Dann, Delaney, Kelly, Puncheon, McArthur, Ledley, Zaha, Sanogo, Gayle
Aston Villa vs Liverpool
Aston Villa XI: Guzan, Hutton, Okore, Baker, Cissokho, Sanchez, Westwood, Delph, Cleverley, Agbonlahor, Benteke
Liverpool XI: Mignolet, Can, Skrtel, Sakho, Markovic, Moreno, Lucas, Henderson, Sterling, Coutinho, Borini
Leicester City vs Stoke City
Leicester XI: Hamer, Simpson, Morgan, Wasilewski, Konchesky, Knockaert, Drinkwater, King, Schlupp, Nugent, Vardy
Stoke XI: Leicester City: Begovic; Bardsley, Wilson, Wollscheid, Muniesa; Whelan, Nzonzi; Arnautovic, Bojan, Moses; Walters
Swansea City vs Chelsea
Swansea XI: Fabianski, Tiendalli, Fernandez, Williams, Taylor, Carroll, Sigurdsson, Dyer, Oliveira, Routledge, Gomis
Chelsea XI: Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Filipe Luis; Matic, Fabregas; Willian, Oscar, Hazard; Diego Costa
Queens Park Rangers vs Manchester United
Manchester United XI: De Gea, Evans, Smalling, Rojo, Valencia, Carrick, Mata, Blind, Rooney, Di Maria, Falcao
PREVIEW
The English Premier League enters a crucial phase with the race to
the title becoming ever increasingly intriguing. After playing 21
matches each, Chelsea are still atop the table with 49 points and
defending champions Manchester City are on 47 points. In the past one
week, both the sides have dropped points but still the fight is between
these two sides.
In between, the battles for the top-four places, or that incentive
rich UEFA Champions League qualification spots are becoming tense
affairs with more than four teams in contention. Realistically,
Southampton, Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspurs, West Ham
United and even Liverpool can finish within the top four.
These teams are separated by mere seven points, with surprise package
Saints at third place with 39 points and Liverpool on eighth place with
32 points. A couple of bad games or a series of inspired outings for
any team can change entire standing.
And today, we have six of these top eight teams in away actions.
Liverpool will travel to Aston Villa, Southampton at Newcastle, Chelsea
at Swansea and Manchester United playing Queens Park Rangers in London.
All these teams will start as favourites, but who knows. Here is the
fixture:
