LONDON, Dec 14 (AFP): Leaders Chelsea and nearest rivals Manchester City preserved the status quo at the top of the Premier League table with a pair of unspectacular victories Saturday.
Eden Hazard and Diego Costa scored as Chelsea won 2-0 at home to Hull City, who had Tom Huddlestone sent off, while champions City beat Leicester City 1-0 despite losing Edin Dzeko and Vincent Kompany to injury.
Chelsea remain three points clear of City, who opened up an eight-point lead over Manchester United ahead of Louis van Gaal's side's home game with Liverpool Sunday.
West Ham United squandered an opportunity to claim third place after being held to a 1-1 draw at Sunderland, while fifth-place Southampton's downturn in form continued as they fell to a fourth straight loss at Burnley.
Arsenal, who began the weekend in sixth place, can move level on points with Southampton if they win at home to Newcastle United later Saturday.
A minor injury to Thibaut Courtois meant that Petr Cech made his first league start of the season in goal for Chelsea, who were bidding to bounce back from last weekend's 2-1 defeat at Newcastle.
Jose Mourinho's side went ahead in the seventh minute at Stamford Bridge, with Hazard ghosting in from the right flank to head home Oscar's in-swinging cross from the left.
Hull lost centre-back Michael Dawson to injury shortly after, with Alex Bruce coming on, and saw Huddlestone given his marching orders on the hour for a sly stamp on Filipe Luis.
Costa made it 2-0 eight minutes later, gathering a pass from the influential Hazard and drilling a shot past Allan McGregor to claim his 12th goal of the campaign.
"It was not a special performance; it was just a good-enough performance," said Chelsea manager Mourinho. "We were never in trouble."
Manchester City registered a seventh successive win in all competitions, but victory at the King Power Stadium came at the cost of injuries to striker Dzeko and captain Kompany.
Having previously lost top scorer Sergio Aguero to a knee injury that will keep him out until next year, City saw Dzeko withdraw from the starting XI after hurting himself in the warm-up.
