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Chelsea, City look to stay ahead

By AFP December 5th, 2014 2 min read

With the frantic Christmas fixture schedule looming on the horizon, Chelsea and Manchester City will look to consolidate their positions as Premier League pace-setters in this weekend’s matches.

The two teams enjoyed breezy wins in mid-week, Chelsea beating Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 and City winning 4-1 at Sunderland, and while the London club remain six points clear of the champions, both sides look a class apart.

Chelsea visit Newcastle United on Saturday, when they will attempt to set a new club record by extending their unbeaten run in all competitions to 24 matches.

Jose Mourinho’s side will welcome back top scorer Diego Costa after he sat out the Tottenham game through suspension, although he was barely missed in Wednesday’s match at Stamford Bridge.

POOR RUN

“We know that we can score at any time,” said French striker Loic Remy, who scored Chelsea’s third goal against Spurs after replacing Didier Drogba in the second half.

“The squad is really strong and that makes the difference between us and the other teams. We will keep going to try and keep the distance from our closest opponent.”

Newcastle have gone two games without victory, having previously won five matches in a row, but they have been beaten only once at home this season — by City on the opening weekend.

Following a poor run of results, City appear to have rediscovered the form that swept them to last season’s title, having won their last four games in all competitions, scoring 12 goals in the process.

The second game of that run was a rousing 3-2 win at home to Bayern Munich in the Champions League that gave Manuel Pellegrini’s side a fighting chance of reaching the last 16 ahead of next week’s showdown with Roma.

LOST GROUND

Third-place Southampton lost ground on the top two after going down 1-0 at Arsenal on Wednesday and now find Manchester United breathing down their necks ahead of the two sides’ confrontation at St Mary’s on Monday.

Arsenal’s victory over Southampton kept them within two points of the top four ahead of their trip to Stoke on Saturday.

Alexis Sanchez continued his fine start to life in England with an 89th-minute winner against Southampton and team-mate Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain believes the Chilean forward’s will to win is becoming contagious.

Two other teams with designs on a top-four spot face off at Upton Park on Sunday, when fifth-place West Ham United entertain seventh-place Swansea City.

Liverpool, five points adrift of the top four after a 3-1 win at Leicester City, welcome Sunderland to Anfield on Saturday.

Fixtures – Saturday:
Hull City v West Brom (6pm)

Liverpool v Sunderland (6pm)

Man City v Everton (8:30pm)

Newcastle v Chelsea (3:45pm)

QPR v Burnley (6pm)

Stoke City v Arsenal (6pm)

Tottenham v Crystal Palace (6pm)

Sunday:
Aston Villa v Leicester City (7pm)

West Ham v Swansea City (4:30pm)

Monday:
Southampton v Man United (11pm)