Chelsea’s Premier League title march continued with a consummate 3-0 triumph over Tottenham Hotspur and champions Manchester City stayed second with a 4-1 canter at Sunderland on Wednesday.
Southampton’s challenge suffered further deflation with a 1-0 defeat at Arsenal, but the pacesetters took full advantage with Chelsea making it 21 games unbeaten this season thanks to goals from Eden Hazard, Didier Drogba and Loic Remy.
The 36-year-old Drogba proved a splendid replacement for suspended top-scorer Diego Costa, grabbing his first chance within two minutes of Hazard’s 19th-minute opener before his replacement Remy also netted to seal the points.
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The performance of the seemingly ageless Drogba earned high praise from his team mate Hazard.
“He does everything, he’s very important for the team and every game he comes in, he plays very well. It is a pleasure to play with him,” the Belgian told Sky Sports.
The only cloud on the horizon for Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho was that his towering midfield anchor, Nemanja Matic, will be suspended for Saturday’s match .
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Chelsea’s victory, which continued their amazing record of being unbeaten by Spurs at Stamford Bridge for 24 years, maintained their six-point lead over City, who came from behind to crush Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.
Aguero keeps scoring
The champions were once again grateful to the league’s leading marksman Sergio Aguero who produced a sublime display, scoring twice with his 13th and 14th league goals of the season.
The Argentine struck two minutes after Connor Wickham had put Sunderland ahead on 19 minutes, equalising with the sweetest of strikes. He then set up Stevan Jovetic six minutes before the break, Pablo Zabaleta added a third and Aguero, in the 71st minute, completed the rout.
Southampton, whose high-flying start to the season was arrested in a 3-0 defeat by City on Sunday, slumped to a second successive defeat with an 89th-minute Alexis Sanchez goal finally breaking their resistance at the Emirates.
The Chilean once again proved why he has been one of the buys of the season when he latched on to Aaron Ramsey’s cut back and scored his ninth Premier League goal of the campaign.
Hull City squeezed out of the relegation zone with a 1-1 draw at Everton, Sone Aluko scoring a 59th-minute equaliser after a superb 34th-minute Romelu Lukaku effort for the home side.
PSG held at Lille in Ligue 1 after resting Ibrahimovic
Paris St Germain missed the chance to go top of Ligue 1 after they were held to a 1-1 draw at Lille on Wednesday as coach Laurent Blanc’s decision to rest Zlatan Ibrahimovic backfired.
Ibrahimovic, who had played four full games since coming back from a lengthy injury layoff, was left out of the squad for Wednesday’s trip and was sorely missed as PSG wasted several chances after keeper Salvatore Sirigu’s own goal cancelled out Edinson Cavani’s opener.
The French champions are second on 34 points from 16 games, one adrift of arch rivals Olympique de Marseille.