European round-up: Hazard & Costa score in Chelsea win

Sport360 staff 22:55 30/10/2016
There were wins for Chelsea, Everton and Nice.

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PREMIER LEAGUE

Diego Costa’s sublime strike sealed Chelsea’s 2-0 success against Southampton on Sunday as the Blues chalked up a fourth successive Premier League victory.

Costa doubled Chelsea’s lead with a fine finish from 25 yards after Eden Hazard had put Antonio Conte’s side ahead early in the first half at St Mary’s.

Inflicting Southampton’s first home league defeat since February gave Chelsea four league wins in a row for the first time since April 2015, when they were on the verge of lifting the title under Jose Mourinho.

While it is too early to predict another Chelsea charge to the title, the Blues have hit a promising vein of form since Conte switched to his preferred system with a three-man defence.

Their win on the south-coast lifted them above Tottenham into fourth place in the table and within one point of leaders Manchester City.

Ross Barkley’s excellent goal sealed an impressive 2-0 win for Everton over West Ham in their Premier League clash on Sunday ending a four match winless run in the league.

For Barkley – who had been dropped both from the England squad and the Everton starting line-up this season as his form dipped – it was his first goal since the opening day of the season against Spurs.

Belgian international Romelu Lukaku — who set up 22-year-old Barkley for his goal — had opened the scoring for the hosts with his 50th for the club.

It also maintained his extraordinary record against the Hammers as it was his ninth goal in as many Premier League matches against them since he moved to Everton.

Everton stay sixth, just five points off the top trio of Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool – West Ham stay firmly in the bottom half of the table three points above the relegation places.

BUNDESLIGA

Rising Germany star Niklas Suele sealed Hoffenheim’s 1-0 win over Hertha Berlin which put them third in the Bundesliga and set up a mouth-watering clash against leaders Bayern Munich next week.

Suele’s 31st-minute header on Sunday gave unbeaten Hoffenheim their fifth win in nine games.

LIGUE 1

Mario Balotelli starred once again as clinical Nice opened up a six-point gap at the top of Ligue 1 with a 4-1 thrashing of Nantes on Sunday.

The maverick forward, back in form after a nightmare spell at Liverpool, scored one and was involved in two other goals as Nice took their unbeaten run since the start of the season to 11 matches.

Wylan Cyprien scored a brace and Alassane Plea also netted while Emiliano Sala replied for the out-gunned visitors at the Allianz Riviera, as Nice played with panache and incision.

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