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City blows chance to close in on Blues
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CHELSEA retained its three-point lead at the midpoint of the Premier League season on Sunday despite being held to a draw by Southampton, thanks to Manchester City collapsing against struggling Burnley.
After Eden Hazard recovered a 1-1 draw for Chelsea at fourth-place Southampton, defending champion City threw away a 2-0 lead at home to draw 2-2 with 19th-place Burnley.
Manchester United missed an opportunity to make ground on the pacesetters, remaining seven points behind City in third place after being held 0-0 at Tottenham.
But Arsenal dislodged West Ham from fifth place by winning their London derby 2-1 after Santi Cazorla earned and converted a penalty and Danny Welbeck scored the second.
At the other end, Leicester remains bottom but raised hopes of survival by beating Hull City 1-0 for its first victory since September. Hull is only out of the drop zone on goal difference over Crystal Palace, which drew 0-0 with fellow struggler Queens Park Rangers.
The most goals of the day came in a clash of mid-table teams at St James’ Park, with Jack Colback scoring his first Newcastle United goal to clinch a 3-2 win over Everton.
A big surprise looked possible at Southampton when Chelsea conceded in the 17th minute as Sadio Mane raced onto a pass from Dusan Tadic and lifted the ball over goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
But Southampton was punished for a defensive lapse just before halftime. Hazard ran onto a pass from Cesc Fabregas, cut inside a defender and shot across goal and into the far corner. It was Fabregas’ 13th assist of the season, equaling the league-leading total by Steven Gerrard in 2013-14.
“Southampton defended with everything and they defended a lot,” said Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, who was fuming that his side was not awarded a penalty when Fabregas went down in the area but was booked for diving.
Unlike Chelsea, City did score twice — but conceded as many. David Silva scored his fourth goal in three appearances after being set up by Jesus Navas midway through the first half and Fernandinho curled in a shot off the underside of the crossbar before halftime.
But George Boyd began Burnley’s comeback two minutes after the break and Ashley Barnes grabbed the equalizer in the 81st minute.
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