Chelsea maintained their pursuit of the Premier League's top three clubs with a 1-0 win away to London rivals Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Chelsea's N'Golo Kante (right) celebrates with Ross Barkley after scoring against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Sunday.Credit:PA
In other games, Manchester City had an easy 3-1 win against Southampton at St Mary's and Burnley beat West Ham United 2-0 at Turf Moor.
At Selhurst Park, Chelsea had to work hard to break down Palace who had taken seven points in their previous three matches, including a shock win over champions Manchester City, but seemed content to allow their visitors most of the possession.
After a sterile first 35 minutes, Willian smacked the post with a swinging free kick and Ross Barkley hit the same upright soon afterwards with an acrobatic overhead effort.
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N'Golo Kante broke the deadlock in the 51st minute when his darting run into the Palace penalty area was spotted by defender David Luiz, who fed the Frenchman for a close range strike.
Palace substitute Conor Wickham spurned the hosts' best chance of the game when he toe-punted a shot over the bar in the drying minutes.
Chelsea remain in fourth place in the Premier League behind Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and leaders Liverpool. Crystal Palace remain in 14th spot.
Manchester City back on track
At St Mary's, Manchester City bounced back from two consecutive defeats to beat Southampton 3-1 and cut the gap to Liverpool to seven points.
Fernandinho on the attack for Manchester City against Southampton.Credit:PA
Pep Guardiola's champions needed to regain their footing after stumbling against Crystal Palace and Leicester, and did so with strikes from David Silva, Sergio Aguero and James Ward-Prowse's own goal at St Mary's.
Charlie Austin should have put Southampton ahead but miscontrolled the ball after being played in on goal and City immediately took advantage, with Bernardo Silva teeing up David Silva to slot home unmarked in the 10th minute.
Alex McCarthy made a good save to keep out Aguero from point-blank range after good work by Sterling and City were made to pay for their profligacy when Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg slammed home after robbing Oleksandr Zinchenko.
City regained the lead when Sterling's cut-back deflected against Ward-Prowse and in after 45 minutes and Aguero headed home another from Zinchenko's cross in the third minute of first-half stoppage time.
McCarthy made good saves to deny Sterling and Mahrez afetr the break, while Aguero hit the crossbar and Hojbjerg was sent off for a rash tackle on Fernandinho.
Defeat left Southampton 17th in the table on 15 points, the same as 18th placed Burnley, who beat West Ham 2-0 at Turf Moor.
West Ham's Michail Antonio and Burnley's Dwight McNeil challenge for the ball at Turf Moor.Credit:PA
Goals from Chris Wood and Dwight McNeil gave Burnley a much-needed, ending a run of three straight defeats for Sean Dyches team.
After his side's 5-1 mauling by Everton on Boxing Day, Dyche dropped former England goalkeeper Joe Hart and brought back Tom Heaton for his first league start since September 2017. He also gave 19-year-old McNeil only his second Premier League start.
The Clarets took the lead in the 15th minute when Wood fired home after Ashley Barnes headed into his path. New Zealander Wood has now scored five goals in four appearances against West Ham in the Premier League.
Left-winger McNeil made it 2-0 with a volley at the back post after Ashley Westwood had whipped in a deep cross from the right and the youngster should have added another goal moments later when he shot wide after a fine pull-back from Barnes.
Heaton justified his recall with a good save from an Andy Carroll header late in the game to give Burnley a rare clean sheet and three valuable points, stopping West Hams run of three straight away victories.
Reuters
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