Chelsea consolidated fourth place in the Premier League with a 2-1 win at Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday, while Southampton upset Arsenal with a thrilling 3-2 win at home.
Southampton's Jan Bednarek and Arsenal's Alex Iwobi challenge for the ball at St Mary's in Southampton on Sunday.Credit:PA
Chelsea made hard work of their afternoon at Brighton and deserved the win. Having won 4-0 at the Amex Stadium last season, they were on course for a repeat after taking a 2-0 lead at the interval.
Eden Hazard set up the first goal for Pedro after 17 minutes and scored the second himself before halftime following a defensive error.
Brighton came back into contention through Solly March's goal midway through the second half and Lewis Dunk went close to an equaliser.
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The home side had not beaten Chelsea in any competition since 1933, but they stayed 13th in the table, nine points clear of the bottom three places.
Southampton shock Arsenal
At Southampton, a late goal by substitute Charlie Austin gave relegation-threatened home side a thrilling 3-2 victory over Arsenal in new Austrian manager Ralph Hasenhuettl's first game on the sout coast.
Brighton's Bernardo and Chelsea's Pedro vie for the ball at the Amex Stadium in Brighton.Credit:AP
It was the Londoners' first defeat in 23 games and meant they lost ground on fourth-placed Chelsea. Southampton, meanwhile, moved out of the bottom three.
Danny Ings, back after injury, headed two fine goals in the first half from equally good crosses by Matt Targett and Nathan Redmond.
In between, Mkhitaryan drew Arsenal level with a header of his own and early in the second half he scored via a big deflection.
Yet in the 85th minute Austin, who had come on for the tiring Ings, headed in a cross by Shane Long.
The win sent Southampton above Burnley into 17th place while Arsenal remained fifth in the table.
Reuters
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