EPL Round-Up: Chelsea Held By Leicester, West Ham Thump Huddersfield

Chelsea 0-0 Leicester City
Chelsea endured a third successive goalless draw in an enthralling encounter against excellent 10-man Leicester.

Antonio Conte had been wary of the Foxes and his concern proved well founded as the movement and energy of Riyad Mahrez, Jamie Vardy and Shinji Okazaki troubled Chelsea.

Leicester were relentless, playing like champions, with the intensity of their pressing forcing mistakes, but Ben Chilwell was sent off for two bookable offences in quick succession, leaving the visitors down to 10 men with 22 minutes remaining.

Yet still, Chelsea, who had won their previous seven Premier League home games since September’s loss to Manchester City, could not break the Foxes down as the Blues followed stalemates with Norwich and Arsenal with a third in a week.

Crystal Palace 1-0 Burnley
Crystal Palace took a further step towards Premier League survival with a 1-0 victory over Burnley which extended the visitors’ winless run to seven games.

The Clarets climbed to fourth with victory over Stoke last month but have struggled to impress since, and came up short again against a Palace side missing eight first-team regulars.

A second goal in two games from Bakary Sako was enough to secure the three points for the Eagles that would take the hosts up to 12th, and into serious contention for a top-10 finish having looked like near-certainties for relegation a few weeks ago.

Huddersfield 1-4 West Ham United
Manuel Lanzini fired a second-half double as West Ham won 4-1 at Huddersfield for their biggest win of the season.

Lanzini, whose only previous goal this campaign was in November, scored twice in five minutes during an impressive second period for the Hammers, who climbed above Huddersfield in the Premier League table.

Mark Noble’s opener for the London side was cancelled out before the interval by Huddersfield midfielder Joe Lolley, but the outstanding Marko Arnautovic struck within 30 seconds of the restart and then provided assists for both Lanzini’s efforts.

Newcastle United 1-1 Swansea City
Joselu came off the bench to drag Newcastle out of even deeper relegation trouble and deny Swansea a major boost to their Premier League survival hopes.

The former Stoke striker stabbed home a 68th-minute equaliser just four minutes after his introduction to cancel out Jordan Ayew’s opener.

Newcastle dominated the first half, but squandered a series of chances and might have conceded a penalty before Ayew struck.

But on a day when defeat was simply not an option, they fought back to snatch a 1-1 draw which at least prevented bottom-of-the-table Swansea from collecting three points for just the third time in 15 attempts.

Watford 2-2 Southampton
Abdoulaye Doucoure’s controversial last-gasp equaliser denied Southampton a first win in 10 matches.

The midfielder diverted the ball in with his arm a minute before full-time as Watford came from two goals down to snatch a 2-2 draw.

James Ward-Prowse had scored twice in the first half before Andre Gray pulled one back – and Saints were crestfallen when Doucoure’s equaliser was allowed to stand.

He stooped to nod into the net – but the ball missed his head and he swept it home with his arm.

Southampton protested long and hard to referee Roger East but to no avail, with a draw leaving them just one point above the relegation zone.

West Brom 2-0 Brighton and Hove Albion
West Brom’s long wait for a Premier League win finally ended as Brighton were beaten 2-0 at The Hawthorns.

Jonny Evans’ early header set Albion on their way to halting a 20-game run stretching back to August, with fellow defender Craig Dawson heading in a second goal at the start of the second half.

The result will also have been a weight off Alan Pardew’s shoulders as it gave him that elusive first league victory since he took over as manager nine matches ago at the start of December.

Read more at https://talksport.com/football/premier-league-results-chelsea-held-leicester-west-ham-thump-huddersfield-and-watford-come#dcJQe4jGjKBqZ6xi.99

Premier League results in full:
Chelsea 0-0 Leicester City
Crystal Palace 1-0 Burnley
Huddersfield 1-4 West Ham United
Newcastle United 1-1 Swansea City
Watford 2-2 Southampton
West Brom 2-0 Brighton and Hove Albion