EPL standings

LONDON (Sporting Alert) — Updated scores and the English Premier League table standings following the games that were played on Sunday, Dec. 14. Leaders Chelsea remained at the top of the league, but Manchester City stayed close with a win as well.

Also on Sunday, Manchester United moved three points clear into third place with a 3-0 victory over Liverpool at Old Trafford.

Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie and Juan Mata scored the goals for Man United, who moved to 31 points — five points behind second place Manchester City and eight behind Chelsea.

Manchester United were winning their sixth straight EPL game, but there are lots of room for improvement.

“We are winning now – six matches in a row is fantastic – but we still have to improve our playing style,” manager Louis van Gaal said. “Only after the matches against QPR and Hull did I say we dominated the game.

“We can learn to kill the game more easily.”

“Great win today. Always great to score against Liverpool,” said Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney on his Twitter Account. “David De Gea was incredible again.”

In the day’s other game, Tottenham left it late to beat Swansea City 2-1 with Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen netting the goals for Mauricio Pochettino’s side.

Wilfried Bony scored the goal for Swansea, which surrendered the winning to Eriksen in the 89th minute after Ashley Richards gave the ball away in his area.

Tottenham are now up to seventh with the win and are just four points outside of the top four.

REPORTS FROM SATURDAY

Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea team picked up a solid 2-0 victory over 10-man Hull City at Stamford Bridge to go to 39 points in the EPL points standings — three more than defending champions Man City, who edged Leicester City 1-0 on the road.

Eden Hazard opened the scoring for the Blues in the seventh minute when he beat his marker to the ball and headed home from a cross floated in by fellow playmaker Oscar.

Hazard then combined passes with Diego Costa to help setup the second goal, which was finished off by the Spanish forward, who ended his mini drought without a goal in the 68th minute.

Hull City midfielder Tom Huddlestone was sent off on the hour mark for a poor challenge on defender Felipe Luis while on the ground.

“It was not a special performance, it was just a good enough performance,” Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said. “We were never in trouble. The 10 against 11 didn’t change the game.

“As always Steve’s [Bruce] team was very well organised, made it difficult but we scored early and I think the team felt quite comfortable and we never felt any danger.

“Eden Hazard is a great kid and he had a chance to rest midweek, so today we could see his freshness and it’s always good to have on the pitch a player like him.”

On the same day, Manchester City grind-out a narrow 1-0 victory over a Leicester City side that has not won in 11 games now and sits at the bottom on the EPL table with 10 points.

Former Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard scored the lone goal of the game five-minutes before the halftime whistle.

After 16 games, the defending champions are on 36 points and remain in the hunt for the title.

“I’m very happy because I think today was a very difficult game,” City boss Manuel Pellegrini said. “It was a difficult week.

“We qualified on Wednesday but after that to play less than 72 hours later, it’s not enough to recover 100%.

“That’s why it was so important to win 1-0 and to defend the way we did. We don’t have strikers. I’m very happy with the whole week and especially with this game.”

Arsenal bounced back from last week’s 3-2 defeat to Stoke City with a 4-1 thumping of Newcastle at Emirates Stadium.

Olivier Giroud and Santi Cazorla each scored a brace in the win for the Gunners, who remained sixth on 26th points, the same amount as Southampton, which fell to its fourth successive defeat against Burnley.

Newcastle United, who are seventh with 23pts, got their goal in the 63rd minute from Ayoze Perez.

“We had the dynamic that we wanted to have. Scoring early helped because we knew Newcastle had slow starts as well but are very strong in the second half,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger told reporters.

“Overall I think we controlled quite well the game. We’re a bit depleted at the back and we responded very well. Olivier Giroud is just coming back from injury and is still not maybe 100% but he can still score goals and is a physical presence.”

Elsewhere on Saturday, Burnley handed the Saints another defeat with a 1-0 result, with West Brom also picking up a victory by the same scoreline.

Crystal Palace and Stoke City ended 1-1, so too did Sunderland and West Ham United.

English Premier League Scores and Table Standings on Saturday, December 13

Sunday, December 14

Manchester United 3 Liverpool 0
Swansea City 1 Tottenham Hotspur 2

Saturday, December 13

Arsenal 4 Newcastle United 1
Burnley 1 Southampton 0
Chelsea 2 Hull City 0
Crystal Palace 1 Stoke City 1
Leicester City 0 Manchester City 1
Sunderland 1 West Ham United 1
West Bromwich Albion 1 Aston Villa 0

Upcoming Next Fixtures (ET)

Monday, December 15

Everton v Queens Park Rangers (3:00pm)

Standings P W D L F A Pts

1 Chelsea 16 12 3 1 36 13 39
2 Manchester City 16 11 3 2 33 14 36
3 Manchester United 15 8 4 3 26 17 31
4 West Ham United 16 8 4 4 27 19 28

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5 Southampton 16 8 2 6 25 13 26
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6 Arsenal 16 7 5 4 28 19 26
7 Tottenham Hotspur 15 6 3 6 18 21 21
8 Newcastle United 16 6 5 5 18 22 23
9 Swansea City 15 6 4 5 20 17 22
10 Liverpool 15 6 3 6 19 19 21
11 Stoke City 16 5 4 7 18 21 19
12 Aston Villa 16 5 4 7 10 20 19
13 Everton 15 4 6 5 24 23 18
14 West Bromwich Albion 16 4 5 7 15 20 17
15 Sunderland 16 2 10 4 14 24 16
16 Crystal Palace 16 3 6 7 19 24 15
17 Burnley 16 3 6 7 11 24 15

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18 Queens Park Rangers 15 4 2 9 16 27 14
19 Hull City 16 2 7 7 15 23 13
20 Leicester City 16 2 4 10 15 27 10