Chelsea surge on as Manchester United bury Arsenal

EPL Wrap: Chelsea surge on, United bury Arsenal

By Paul Barbieri   Updated 8 hours ago

Chelsea extended their lead at the top of the Premier League while the boo boys brought out the ‘Wenger Out’ banners at Arsenal as the Gunners found themselves on the wrong-end of a smash-and-grab raid from old foes Manchester United.

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At Stamford Bridge, though, league-leading Chelsea produced a professional 2-0 win over 10-man West Brom in a contest that was all-but over within half-an hour. 

By that time, Diego Costa had managed to avoid the attention of three defenders sent out to mark him as he chested down a cross from Oscar in the 11th minute and volleyed home. 

Fourteen minutes later, the Blues doubled the advantage as West Brom’s back four failed to defend a corner from the left, with Cesc Fabregas’ low ball poked into the back of the net via an untidy shot from Eden Hazard. 

It could have been so much worse for West Brom, though, as Claudio Yacob, playing his first league match this term, produced a poor two-legged challenge on Costa at the edge of the area and was shown a straight red. 

Despite being a man down, West Brom held firm and didn’t concede again, but the 13th-placed side didn’t really threaten Chelsea’s goal either as the Blues moved seven points clear of second-placed Southampton and eight ahead of Manchester City (third). 

City, meanwhile, were forced to do it the hard way as they came from behind to record a 2-1 win over Swansea City (seventh) at Etihad Stadium. 

Having won just one of their previous six matches, the pressure was on City and that just increased as Wilfred Bony collected a quality pass from Nathan Dyer and finished with aplomb in the ninth minute for his fifth goal from six games. 

City weren’t done, however, and the hosts levelled 10 minutes later as Jesus Navas’ cross was chipped in by Stevan Jovetic. 

The Citizens should have gone ahead but Swansea goalkeeper Lucasz Fabianski did well to deny Sergio Aguero before brilliantly tipping a 30-metre rocket from Gael Clichy onto the bar. 

But Fabianski could do nothing to stop Yaya Toure producing the winner just after the hour as he stormed into the box and found the back of the net with a cool, low finish. 

At the Emirates for the evening clash, Manchester United may have left it late, but Louis van Gaal’s side did enough to gun down Arsenal (eighth) in a 2-1 result that takes the Red Devils into fourth on the table. 

In a clash filled to the brim with sub-plots as former United striker Danny Welbeck took on his old side, it was Arsenal that dominated much of the encounter as they repeatedly tested United goalkeeper David De Gea. 

With Luke Shaw forced off early with an injury and Chris Smalling left to marshal a makeshift defence, De Gea had a tough night between the sticks. 

But for all the Gunners’ dominance, they ended up falling behind in the 56th minute thanks to a bizarre own goal. As Wojciech Szczesny came out, he ended up colliding with Kieran Gibbs, leaving his team-mate lying on the ground as Antonio Valencia’s cross-cum-shot spun off Gibbs’ out-stretched leg and in for a goal. 

Szczesny was forced off the ground and matters didn’t improve for Arsenal as they also lost Jack Wilshere to injury. 

As the Gunners pressed for an equaliser, they left themselves exposed at the back and a fast counter ended with Wayne Rooney one-on-one with the keeper five minutes from time, the striker making no mistake. 

Olivier Giroud returned to the fray after three months out to belt home a stoppage-time pearler but it was too little, too late for the Gunners, who find themselves 15 points adrift of Chelsea, their title bid in tatters as they have the lowest points tally after 12 matches from Wenger’s entire time at the helm.

At St James Park, Moussa Sissoko’s 78th-minute strike proved enough to help Newcastle to their fifth win in a row, the Magpies climbing into fifth on the table via a 1-0 win over relegation-threatened QPR (20th). 

Playing his first match in 32 months, Newcastle’s Ryan Taylor appeared the hosts’ primary threat as he threatened Robert Green’s goal on two occasions before hurting himself just after the half-hour as he tearfully left the pitch. 

Taylor later tweeted he has not suffered a serious injury and in more news to warm the hearts of Newcastle supporters, Sissoko was on hand to bury a powerful shot into the back of the net 12 minutes from time after playing a neat one-two with Sammy Ameobi. 

Injury-hit West Ham, meanwhile, dropped to sixth on the table after falling to a 2-1 loss to Everton (ninth) in a heated affair at Goodison Park. 

Romelu Lukaku opened the scoring for the Toffees in the 26th minute despite appearing to be offside, only for the Hammers to fortuitously equalise as Mauro Zarate’s powerful effort took a big deflection off Phil Jagielka past Tim Howard. 

But Everton produced the goods in the 73rd minute as a fast break involving Lukaku and Samuel Eto’o ended with Leon Osman firing home the winner in his 400th appearance for the club. 

Elsewhere, Stoke City (10th) may have dominated possession, but found themselves on the wrong end of a 2-1 loss to Burnley (18th) on Saturday afternoon. 

In remarkable scenes, Danny Ings scored twice for Burnley within two minutes in the first half to put the visitors in control before Jon Walters pulled one back in the 32nd minute with a diving header. 

And, in the day’s final game, Leicester (17th) and Sunderland (14th) played out a goalless draw. 

Chelsea 2 (Costa 11, Hazard 25)
West Brom 0 

Everton 2 (Lukaku 26, Osman 73)
West Ham 1 (Zarate 56) 

Leicester 0
Sunderland 0 

Manchester City 2 (Jovetic 19, Toure 62)
Swansea 1 (Bony 9) 

Newcastle 1 (Sissoko 78)
QPR 0 

Stoke 1 (Walters 32)
Burnley 2 (Ings 12, 13) 

Arsenal 1 (Giroud 90+5)
Manchester United 2 (Gibbs 56og, Rooney 85)