EPL Table: Premier League standings after 24 matches

Alex Young @alexwsyoung7 February 2017

Manchester City have closed the gap on the Premier League leaders after their late 2-1 victory over Swansea City at the Etihad Stadium.

The win sees Pep Guardiola's side leapfrog Arsenal into third place in the table, while Manchester United moved within two points of the top four with a comfortable 3-0 win over Leicester City in Sunday's other game.

The results come after Chelsea strengthened their grip on top spot and all but ended Arsenal's title hopes with a 3-1 win on a day of goals and drama on Saturday.

Eden Hazard's stunning solo goal early in the second half doubled the lead after Marcos Alonso's controversial opener before former Gunners captain Cesc Fabregas punished a Petr Cech error late on.

Arsenal felt Alonso fouled Hector Bellerin in scoring the opener, but their only consolation from the day was a stoppage-time goal from Olivier Giroud.

The win keeps Chelsea nine points clear as Tottenham kept pace with a 1-0 win over Middlesbrough in the evening kick-off, settled by Harry Kane's 58th-minute penalty after Son Heung-Min was fouled by Espinosa Bernardo.

Premier League table

Pos Team P W D L GD Pts
1 Chelsea 24 19 2 3 34 59
2 Tottenham 24 14 8 2 30 50
3 Man City 24 15 4 5 20 49
4 Arsenal 24 14 5 5 24 47
5 Liverpool 24 13 7 4 22 46
6 Man United 24 12 9 3 15 45
7 Everton 24 11 7 6 13 40
8 West Brom 24 10 6 8 2 36
9 West Ham 24 9 4 11 -9 31
10 Watford 24 8 6 10 -11 30
11 Stoke City 24 7 8 9 -7 29
12 Burnley 24 9 2 13 -9 29
13 Southampton 24 7 6 11 -7 27
14 Bournemouth 24 7 5 12 -12 26
15 Middlesbrough 24 4 9 11 -8 21
16 Leicester City 24 5 6 13 -17 21
17 Swansea City 24 6 3 15 -25 21
18 Hull City 24 5 5 14 -25 20
19 Crystal Palace 24 5 5 15 -13 19
20 Sunderland 24 5 4 15 -18 19

Away from Stamford Bridge, most eyes had been on the fight at the bottom.

At Selhurst Park, Sam Allardyce's Crystal Palace suffered a 4-0 hammering at the hands of his old club Sunderland - with all the goals in the first half.

Lamine Kone - signed by Allardyce for the Black Cats - swept home the rebound when Wayne Hennessey spilt Sebastian Larsson's 10th minute free-kick.

But it was during a crazy few minutes before half-time that Palace's afternoon completely fell apart.

Didier Ndong made it 2-0 with his first goal for Sunderland when he nicked the ball off Joe Ledley and rifled home in the 43rd minute.

Jermain Defoe then scored twice in first-half stoppage time to leave Sunderland fans in dreamland.

In Pictures | Crystal Palace vs Sunderland | 4/02/2017

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However, the win was not enough to lift the Black Cats off the foot of the table thanks to Hull's 2-0 victory over Liverpool.

The deadlock was broken in the 39th minute when Alfred N'Diaye stabbed home a goal Simon Mignolet will not want to see again.

Liverpool pressed but were undone on the counter-attack as Oumar Niasse made sure of the win six minutes from time.

Early drama was the order of the day with six goals and a red card inside the opening 15 minutes of the six 3pm kick-offs.

The red card came at Vicarage Road where Burnley's Jeff Hendrick was sent off for a two-footed challenge on Jose Holebas.

Watford swiftly took advantage as Troy Deeney scored in the 10th minute with a powerful header, and the Hornets doubled their lead on the stroke of half-time through M'Baye Niang's header.

There was a glimmer of hope for Burnley when Sebastian Prodl handled on the line, and Ashley Barnes's penalty went in off the post, but Watford hung on to win 2-1.

In Pictures | Tottenham vs Middlesbrough | 04/02/2017

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The fastest goal came at Goodison Park, where Romelu Lukaku needed all of 31 seconds to fire Everton in front against Bournemouth.

That set the tone as James McCarthy doubled the lead in the 23rd minute from Lukaku's assist and the Belgian's second made it 3-0 after 29 minutes.

But Joshua King gave Bournemouth hope in the 59th minute when he poked home from close-range and the nerves were apparent around Goodison after King made it 3-2 with 20 minutes to go.

However, Lukaku scored his third and fourth goals of the afternoon seconds apart inside the last 10 minutes to secure the victory.

There was time for Harry Arter to pull one back, but Ross Barkley had the final word in a 6-3 Everton win.

At Southampton, Manolo Gabbiadini needed only 12 minutes of his debut to score for the Saints, hammering a shot in off the underside of the bar, but that was about all that went right in a 3-1 loss to West Ham.

The celebrations were barely over before West Ham replied through Andy Carroll's 14th minute strike.

Pedro Obiang's low shot deflected in to make it 2-1 before the break, and seven minutes into the second half Mark Noble's free-kick deflected off Steven Davis to find the net.

James Morrison scored his second goal of the week as he opened the scoring for West Brom against Stoke just six minutes in.

Saido Berahino was introduced as a substitute against the team he left in January, but barely made an impact as West Brom won 1-0.

MATCH DAY 24

Everton 6 Bournemouth 3

Hull 2 Liverpool 0

West Brom 1 Stoke 0

Manchester City 1 Swansea 1

Leicester City 0 Manchester United 3

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