LONDON, England (Sporting Alert) — Leaders Chelsea have retained their three-point advantage at the top of the English Premier League table with a win against West Ham, while Manchester City and Manchester United both secured Boxing Day victories.
Goals from John Terry and Diego Costa on either side of 45-minutes, guided Jose Mourinho’s squad to a comfortable 2-0 victory over the Hammers at Stamford Bridge on a day that all the teams were in action.
Captain Terry, who also netted the opener against Stoke City, was scoring his second goal in two games and Mourinho was delighted for the veteran defender.
“He always had that (goalscoring ability),” Mourinho said. “He’s full of confidence. I see my John of 2004, 05, 06. I see him. I don’t see any difference.
“In him there is no difference. He’s playing so good.”
The victory saw Chelsea moving to 45 points in the EPL standings, with Man City right behind them on 42 points.
Manchester City, playing again without a recognized striker, dominated the opening 45 minutes on their way to scoring three goals during that period in the 3-1 win over West Brom at The Hawthorns.
Fernando, Yaya Toure (pen) and David Silva all found the back of the net in the first half for the defending champions, with Brown Ideye scoring the lone goal for West Brom in the 87th min.
“I am very satisfied, we have three points more,” Man City boss Manuel Pellegrini told reporters after the game.
“It was a difficult game, especially on Boxing Day. It is always difficult to play against a difficult team at home. They defended very well.
“We scored three goals again when set up without strikers. The way we are playing, we are doing very well so far.”
At Old Trafford, Manchester United easily turned back Newcastle United 3-1, as captain Wayne Rooney earned the Man of the Match award for his performance.
The English and United forward — playing in a midfield role again — scored twice and setup Robin van Persie for the third.
Manchester United stayed third in the points standings with 35 points and manager Louis van Gaal was “pleased” with his team’s performance.
“I was very pleased because we dominated for 90 minutes,” the Dutchman said.
“In the second half we are only thinking already of the game against Tottenham (on Sunday) because there were unnecessary losses of the ball. But overall I’m very pleased with the performance.
“We make progress in every game but we are also doing bad things in every game and we have to improve that.
“But I’m satisfied because we are dominating a lot of games, most of the games we have played this season we have dominated. We’re not always winning but that is coming.”
Southampton moved above West Ham with a 3-1 win over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, while Arsenal stayed sixth with 2-1 win over Queens Parker Rangers, despite going down to 10-man after forward Olivier Giroud was sent off.
Tottenham, Swansea City and Liverpool all won their respective fixtures on Friday to complete the top half of the standings.
In the battle for relegation, Crystal Palace and Burnley have joined Leicester City in the red zone.
Premier League Scores and Results
Friday, December 26
Chelsea 2 West Ham United 0
West Bromwich Albion 1 Manchester City 3
Manchester United 3 Newcastle United 1
Crystal Palace 1 Southampton 3
Arsenal 2 Queens Park Rangers 1
Leicester City 1 Tottenham Hotspur 2
Swansea City 1 Aston Villa 0
Burnley 0 Liverpool 1
Everton 0 Stoke City 1
Sunderland 1 Hull City 3
EPL Table Standings
Standings P W D L F A Pts
1 Chelsea 18 14 3 1 40 13 45
2 Manchester City 18 13 3 2 39 15 42
3 Manchester United 18 10 5 3 33 19 35
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4 Southampton 18 10 2 6 31 14 32
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5 West Ham United 18 9 4 5 29 21 31
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6 Arsenal 18 8 6 4 32 22 30
7 Tottenham Hotspur 18 9 3 6 24 24 30
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8 Swansea City 18 8 4 6 23 19 28
9 Liverpool 18 7 4 7 22 24 25
10 Newcastle United 18 6 5 7 19 26 23
11 Stoke City 18 6 4 8 19 23 22
12 Everton 18 5 6 7 27 28 21
13 Aston Villa 18 5 5 8 11 22 20
14 Sunderland 18 3 10 5 16 27 19
15 West Bromwich Albion 18 4 5 9 18 26 17
16 Queens Park Rangers 18 5 2 11 21 34 17
17 Hull City 18 3 7 8 18 25 16
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18 Crystal Palace 18 3 6 9 20 30 15
19 Burnley 18 3 6 9 12 27 15
20 Leicester City 18 2 4 12 16 31 10
