Premier League, Week 19: Chelsea dump Liverpool from the top four

A smooth Chelsea move was interrupted by a poke from the Liverpool defense, but it fell to Hazard, who took one touch to settle before hitting an absolute rocket past Mignolet. It was a peach of a strike for the on-fire Chelsea man and it brought the home side level.

Liverpool came back into the match after Chelsea leveled, but the match was still thrilling. Open play and furious pace gave both sides chances, but nobody found the net again until after the half-hour mark when a Chelsea striker actually scored a real goal that counted.

Tim Sherwood earned his first home victory since taking over for Andre Villas-Boas as Tottenham thumped Stoke City 3-0 at White Hart Lane. Goals from Roberto Soldado, Mousa Dembélé and Aaron Lennon did the damage as Spurs out shot the Potters 20-1.

The domination continued but it took until the 36th minute for the next notable moment...which just happened to be a deserved goal.

Arsenal had some scary moments at the end, but did enough to hold on for all three points. Szczesny almost gave away the lead when a poorly-executed clearance hit Loic Remy and bounced back towards his net, but the ball dribbled wide. Newcastle pushed everyone -- including Krul -- forward in desperate search of a late equalizer, but the Gunners defended late set pieces well to keep a clean sheet.

Newcastle: Krul, Santon, Williamson, Coloccini, Debuchy, Anita (Ameobi 74’), Tiote, Gouffran (Ben Arfa 62’), Cabaye, Sissoko (Haidara 79’), Remy

Everton suffered a shocking home defeat to Sunderland on Boxing Day, but there’d be no repeat against Southampton. The Saints put up a furious fight, but they were powerless to prevent their hosts from securing three points at Goodison Park after a late winner from Romelu Lukaku.

Everton started brightly and Ross Barkley drew an early save from Kelvin Davis when he met Seamus Coleman’s cross with a snapshot. Having seen his attempt to set up a teammate fail (and perhaps remembering his awesome strike at the Liberty Stadium last weekend), the right back took matters into his own hands in the ninth minute.

Mere days after appointing Alan Curbishley as technical director, Fulham went and lost 6-0 to Hull City, who are doing their best to steer well clear of a relegation battle. Surely these things are unrelated, right?

Jokes aside, Fulham absolutely fell apart in embarrassing fashion on Saturday. While the first two goals they conceded might have been scored against any below-average team, the four that followed appeared to come as a direct result of a lack of effort on their part. Fulham defenders and midfielders were neither closing down Hull players nor holding any kind of shape.

Cardiff doubled their lead in the 58th minute as the goal scorer and assist man on their first switched places. Mutch made a nice move on the dribble to beat his marker before firing a cross into the area that Campbell directed past Mannone.

Cardiff City: Marshall, Caulker, Turner, Theopile-Catherine, John, Whittingham, Medel, Kim (Gunnarsson 79’), Noone (Cowie 72’), Mutch, Campbell (Cornelius 82’)

Manchester United managed to survive injuries to Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie, a decimated defence and being thoroughly outplayed at Carrow Road, coming away with all three points in a strange 1-0 win. Norwich City can only have themselves to blame for failing to capitalise on their chances, although the manner in which they conceded will leave Chris Hughton thinking that the match could easily have gone quite differently.

The first half saw David Moyes’ side put in an utterly miserable performance. They offered nothing going forward and were slack elsewhere. Only David de Gea impressed as the hosts kept United pinned in their own half, with Patrice Evra and Michael Carrick putting in particularly despicable performances.

Over two years ago, while he was playing for Tottenham Hotspur, Tom Huddlestone made a pledge -- as part of an awareness campaign to raise money for cancer research -- that he would not cut his hair until he scored a goal. At the time, he was recovering from what seemed to be a relatively minor knee injury , but it ultimately forced him to miss extensive time. Huddlestone’s inability to regain his form in Tottenham’s lone Champions League campaign caused them to sell him to Hull City.

Huddlestone has found full form and fitness again at Hull, where he’s been the key to their success so far this season, but his deep midfield role doesn’t exactly lend itself to scoring goals easily. Thankfully, Fulham are having a very bad season and an even worse day. He scored his team’s fourth on Saturday against the Cottagers, ending his drought of 52 club games without a goal.

The quenelle has become popular enough in France that it’s extremely likely that the gesture has other meanings to certain subsets of people that are neither racist, nor rebellious in nature. Its ubiquity also lends itself to people using the gesture without being aware of the manner in which it was created or spread.

Regardless of his intentions, Anelka will almost certainly be called upon to offer an explanation. If he understood that his gesture could be seen as anti-Semitic or political in nature, he’s very likely to face a suspension hearing. Even if he was unaware of the anti-Semitic implications and was innocently parroting the symbol without knowing its meaning, there’s a good chance that he faces a suspension hearing anyway. Even if he isn’t given a ban, this incident should serve as a warning to Premier League footballers to keep the sign out of the game in the future.

West Ham United versus West Bromwich did not have ‘thrilling match’ written all over it. It didn’t have ‘thrilling match’ written anywhere near it. But that’s what we got -- the hosts opened the scoring in the fourth minute and started a see-sawing match in which the Hammers gave away two leads and the Baggies one en route to a 3-3 draw.

It all looked so promising for the Hammers. Although the visitors went on the attack early on with Chris Brunt firing James Morrison’s cross into the side netting, it was West Ham who struck first. Mohamed Diame nodded the resulting goal kick towards Joe Cole, who then played a deft one-two with Kevin Nolan before firing beyond Ben Foster and into the far corner.

Let’s hear it for the Manifest Destiny Derby! Haha, just a little joke for the Americans out there, no offense anyone. But seriously, this game is going to be about as pleasant as westward expansion was for the collective poors of the frontier.

This game might be a little better, because both sides have pretty hilarious defenses, and let’s be honest; when we talk about “good football” and “positive play” and all the rest of that kind of thing, what we mean is “this team scores and/or allows a bunch of goals” because that’s the only thing any neutral fan actually cares about.

Out: Craig Bellamy (hamstring). In doubt: None.

Sunderland injuries and suspensions

Manchester City injuries and suspensions

Crystal Palace injuries and suspensions

West Ham United injuries and suspensions

West Bromwich Albion injuries and suspensions