Saturday 8 February 2014 19:57, UK
Chelsea beat Newcastle 3-0 to go top of the Premier League, as Norwich held Man City and Liverpool thrashed Arsenal 5-1.
In the late game, Swansea won 3-0 at home to Cardiff to return to the top half of the table. Monk, installed as Michael Laudrup's replacement in midweek, enjoyed a dream first game in charge as the introduction of Pablo Hernandez inspired a second-half surge from his Swans side. Hernandez stabbed a through-ball for man-of-the-match Wayne Routledge to score the first two minutes after the interval, and after Craig Bellamy had hit the crossbar at the other end, Routledge crossed for Nathan Dyer to head home a second on 79 minutes. Wilfried Bony wrapped up the win five minutes from time when he nodded in Pablo's free-kick, as Cardiff remained in 19th position, three points from safety. Crystal Palace leapfrogged West Brom and dumped their opponents into the relegation zone with a 3-1 victory at Selhurst Park. Scott Dann, Tom Ince and Joe Ledley all made their Eagles debuts and the latter two were able to mark the occasions with goals. Youssouf Mulumbu cleared Dann's header off the line early on, but Ince gave the Eagles the lead on the quarter-hour mark when he lifted the ball over Ben Foster after good work from Yannick Bolasie. On 27 minutes, Tony Pulis' men doubled their lead as a corner whipped in by Ince was met by an unmarked Ledley Immediately after the break, Thievy pulled a goal back for Albion with his first touch since coming on as part of a double switch by Pepe Mel. Victor Anichebe, on the left wing, played a lovely ball back to the on-loan Espanyol forward, who fired in an unstoppable finish. But Marouane Chamakh restored Palace's two-goal advantage from the penalty spot, after referee Chris Foy adjudged that Foster had brought down the Moroccan in the area. Palace are 14th, and fellow promoted side Hull City are one point above them in 11th spot after securing a 2-0 win away to 10-man Sunderland. England boss Roy Hodgson was watching at the Stadium of Light, with the Black Cats' Adam Johnson having netted seven in seven prior to this game - but he was unable to impress on this occasion. In the fourth minute, Wes Brown was shown a red card - Sunderland's fifth under Gus Poyet - for hacking down Shane Long when the Hull striker was through on goal. Brown's error came from a dreadful pass from Phil Bardsley which put his team-mate in trouble. Vito Mannone saved Tom Huddlestone's resulting free-kick and Fabio Borini was sacrificed by Poyet in order to bring on Santiago Vergini, but on 16 minutes, Hull went in front. Huddlestone's corner was headed away from Mannone by Jozy Altidore but Jake Livermore guided the ball back into the danger zone and Long was lurking to head home from close-range. Jelavic scored a second with a 62nd-minute header after the ball had looped up off the heels of Vergini from Maynor Figueroa's drive. The Black Cats are 17th, one point above West Brom. West Ham moved up to 15th, two points clear of the drop zone, as Kevin Nolan continued his excellent run of goals against Aston Villa in a 2-0 away victory. Carlton Cole replaced the banned Andy Carroll for the Hammers, while Gabby Agbonlahor returned to captain Villa. In a first half lacking any real quality, Stewart Downing missed his kick right in front of goal before Matt Jarvis drove his sliding right-footer wide of Brad Guzan's near post. Marco Borriello replaced Cole at the break, and within three minutes, West Ham had scored twice through Nolan. First, Downing turned Ryan Bertrand inside out before his low cross was superbly turned home thanks to some brilliant improvisation by Nolan, scoring with a backheel. Then Nolan nipped in to steal the ball off Fabian Delph before slotting his right-footer beyond Guzan into the far corner for his fourth goal in two games. Southampton drew 2-2 with another mid-table side Stoke at St Mary's. After a needless sixth-minute handball from Charlie Adam, Rickie Lambert opened the scoring as his free-kick flew across goal and over Asmir Begovic into the far corner. Peter Odemwingie equalised on 38 minutes. A wonderful Adam pass carved Saints open and put the Nigerian through to slide the ball past the onrushing Artur Boruc. Three minutes later, Steven Davis cut inside and whipped an excellent cross into the middle, which bounced, evaded everyone, and was then carried in by the wind. However, Stoke levelled before the break when Peter Crouch took advantage of sloppy marking and headed in Adam's corner.
