The Premier League season continued with the final round of games played in 2016 – a couple spilled into the New Year.
Chelsea maintained a healthy lead at the top going out of 2016 into 2017 ahead of Liverpool and Arsenal. Sunderland, Hull and Swansea are the sides in danger of going down as things stand.
Here’s a round up of the Premier League action from the other games played.
Results
Friday 30th December 2016 – Premier League
Hull City 2-2 Everton 20:00
Saturday 31st December 2016 – Premier League
Burnley 4-1 Sunderland 15:00
Chelsea 4-2 Stoke City 15:00
Leicester City 1-0 West Ham United 15:00
Manchester United 2-1 Middlesbrough 15:00
Southampton 1-2 West Bromwich Albion 15:00
Swansea City 0-3 Bournemouth 15:00
Liverpool 1-0 Manchester City 17:30
Sunday 1st January 2017 – Premier League
Watford 1-4 Tottenham Hotspur 13:30
Arsenal 2-0 Crystal Palace 16:00
A win wasn’t something Hull could end the year with but a point from a 2-2 draw at the KCOM Stadium did stop a three game losing run and – at the time anyway – moved the Tigers off the foot of the table. Everton’s late equaliser meant the Toffees twice came from behind to claim this draw.
Chelsea were pushed by Stoke but eventually the leaders recorded a 4-2 win at Stamford Bridge to ensure they would take – at least – a six point lead into the New Year.
A second successive festive win from Burnley means they moved towards the safety of midtable. Andre Gray’s hat trick helped the Clarets to a 4-1 win over Sunderland at Turf Moor. The Black Cats’ fourth defeat in five meant they stayed in the bottom three.
2016 has been a great year for Leicester but it wasn’t ending positively! However, it did end on a high note when the Foxes recorded a 1-0 win against West Ham. The Hammers’ defeat at the King Power Stadium ended a three game winning run.
The Manchester United winning run was extended to five when they came back from a goal down to score two late goals – within a minute of each other – to beat Middlesbrough 2-1 at Old Trafford.
After the lead – and a player was lost to a red card – was overturned Southampton suffered successive defeats. The Saints dropped down to 9th – a place below West Brom – after Albion went away from the St Mary’s Stadium with a 2-1 victory.
AFC Bournemouth ended successive defeats with a 3-0 win at Swansea to move back up to 10th. The Swans might have sacked Bob Bradley but they still lost a fourth game running to remain four points from safety.
A fourth straight win means Liverpool are Chelsea’s nearest challengers heading into the New Year. The Reds closed the gap to six points again when they won the late kick off at Anfield. An early goal was enough to see off the challenge of Manchester City – who had won their previous three – 1-0.
Tottenham are definitely an in form side at the moment but Watford’s injury problems are evident in the fact the Hornets could only name six substitutes at Vicarage Road – a number of these younger players too. Spurs wouldn’t care though and ran out 4-1 winners on New Years Day to move back into the top 4.
Sam Allardyce is still awaiting his first win as Crystal Palace boss – he had drawn with Watford in his opening game. His side were beaten 2-0 at Arsenal in a game that included an extraordinary ‘scorpion’ goal from the Gunners’ Olivier Giroud in the Emirates Stadium win that took them up to 3rd.
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