After turning on the style for a while under Antonio Conte, Chelsea are now showing their usual steel, picking up their second straight 1-0 victory to make it ten straight Premier League wins. The likes of Liverpool, Manchester City, Tottenham and Manchester United all tasted wins as well in the PL on Wednesday.
Cesc Fabregas and Thibaut Courtois were the heroes for Chelsea in their match against Sunderland, with the Spaniard scoring what proved to be the only goal of the game, while the goalkeeper ensured the Blues would leave the Stadium of Light with all three points, making a brilliant save right at the end to deny Patrick Van Aanholt, the former Chelsea man, an equaliser.
Manchester United got their second consecutive win, courtesy a late goal from Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Paul Pogba had given Man Utd the lead right on the stroke of halftime, but that lead would leave their grasp as James McArthur made it 1-1 on 66 minutes. However, Ibrahimovic would have the final say, running onto a pass from Paul Pogba, before bringing all that experience and class out with his finish.
Liverpool moved above Arsenal into second in the Premier League table thanks to a 3-0 win over Middlesbrough. Adam Lallana helped himself to a brace, with Divock Origi scoring the other goal, which helped the Reds move into second.
Manchester City are not just a point behind Liverpool and Arsenal after a 2-0 win, which saw Pablo Zabaleta and Davis Silva score. However, the win for Pep Guardiola's team was marred by a potentially serious injury to Ilkay Gundogan, who injured his knee and, according to the manager, could be out for the rest of the season.
"I'm so sad for Ilkay as it looks like we'll be without him for a long time – we will know more tomorrow (Thursday) but it doesn't look good," Guardiola said.
"We'll know the extent of the injury when he has been properly assessed by the doctor, so until then we cannot know for sure, but I think he may be out for some time. He is very sad, of course, as we all are."
Spurs maintained their three-point lead of sixth-placed Manchester United and stayed three behind fourth-placed City with an assured 3-0 result over Hull City – Christian Eriksen and Victor Wanyama scoring the goals.
Results: Sunderland 0-1 Chelsea; Crystal Palace 1-2 Manchester United; Stoke City 0-0 Southampton; Middlesbrough 0-3 Liverpool; Tottenham 3-0 Hull City; West Ham 1-0 Burnley; Manchester City 2-0 Watford; West Bromwich Albion 3-1 Swansea City.
