LONDON: Chelsea and Manchester City kicked off the Premier League’s hectic festive period with commanding victories on Friday to keep the title race finely poised, while Manchester United and Liverpool also won on a successful day for the country’s top teams.

John Terry and Diego Costa scored as Chelsea beat West Ham United 2-0 at Stamford Bridge to retain a three-point lead over City, who scored all of their goals in the first half in a 3-1 win at West Bromwich Albion in blizzard-like conditions — Fernando, Yaya Toure and David Silva on target for the champions.

United stayed on the edge of the title race as two goals from Wayne Rooney helped set up a 3-1 win over Newcastle United, tightening the 20-time champions’ grip on third place.

West Ham’s loss allowed Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, Swansea City and Liverpool to make ground in the race for the top four.

MANCHESTER: Newcastle United goalkeeper Jak Alnwick saves a shot by Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney at Old Trafford.—AP

Southampton’s return to form was underlined by a 3-1 victory at Crystal Palace which lifted the Saints back into the top four while Liverpool built on their recent encouraging performances by winning 1-0 at Burnley.

Tottenham beat bottom club Leicester City 2-1 for a third successive league win — Harry Kane again on target for the London club who moved up to sixth, just ahead of Swansea City who beat Aston Villa 1-0.

Terry tapped in Chelsea’s opener after 31 minutes and Costa sealed the points for Jose Mourinho’s side, although the score-line disguised a gulf in quality between the two sides who were separated by only three places in the table at kickoff.

West Ham ground out a 0-0 draw in the corresponding fixture last year when Mourinho accused them of playing 19th Century football but once Terry had scored they offered little.

Chelsea moved to 45 points from 18 games, three more than champions City and 10 ahead of United.

“Football is football, you never know and the only thing we can do to try to reduce the unpredictability of football is to do what we’re doing: playing very well,” Mourinho said.

The first half hour was one-way traffic and the only surprise was that Chelsea did not score before Terry turned the ball over the line after Costa flicked on a Cesc Fabregas corner. It was Terry’s second goal in successive league games.

Costa, whose goal tally had slowed in recent weeks after an explosive start to his Chelsea career, showed his pedigree when he received a pass from Eden Hazard just past the hour mark and lashed a left-foot shot past goalkeeper Adrian.

WEST BROMWICH: Manchester City’s Fernando (second L) shoots to score with an overhead kick against West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns.

Chelsea had numerous other chances to score with West Ham’s only flurry coming near the end when substitute Morgan Amalfitano dinked an effort against the post.

City responded emphatically and were out of sight before halftime at West Brom.

West Brom keeper Ben Foster dropped the ball at the feet of Fernando after eight minutes to gift the visitors their opener and Toure’s spot-kick made it 2-0. Silva stroked in the third after 34 minutes to end the game as a contest before Brown Ideye scored a late consolation.

United returned to winning ways following last weekend’s 1-1 draw at Aston Villa by sinking Newcastle at Old Trafford.

Rooney broke the deadlock in the 23rd minute, tapping in after a sliding Radamel Falco steered Juan Mata’s pass across goal, and added a second goal 13 minutes later with an assured finish from Mata’s pass.

The United captain, who played in midfield again, teed up Robin van Persie to head home the hosts’ third goal eight minutes into the second half, before Papiss Cisse replied with an excellent late penalty.

Southampton are three points below United, after winning at Palace, who slipped into the relegation zone.

Sadio Mane rounded Allan McGregor to put the visitors ahead in the 17th minute, with quick-fire goals by defenders Ryan Bertrand and Toby Alderweireld making the game safe before Scott Dann scored late on.

Christian Eriksen’s 71st-minute free-kick secured victory for Tottenham after Leonardo Ulloa had cancelled out Kane’s first-minute opener for.

Swansea climbed as well, moving to within four points of the Champions League places by beating Aston Villa thanks to Gylfi Sigurdsson’s curling 13th-minute free-kick.

Raheem Sterling scored the only goal as Liverpool won at Burnley but Merseyside rivals Everton continue to struggle, losing 1-0 at home to Stoke City.

Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard was forced off in the second half at Goodison Park, after Bojan Krkic had scored the game’s only goal from the penalty spot in the 38th minute.

In the day’s other game, Gaston Ramirez scored one and made another as Hull City escaped from the bottom three by coming from behind to win 3-1 at Sunderland.

Adam Johnson put Sunderland ahead in the first minute, but Ramirez equalised with a speculative shot and then teed up James Chester before Nikica Jelavic added a third in injury time.—Agencies

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2014