Manchester City pounded West Ham United 4-1 in the English Premier League on Saturday to claim their first back-to-back wins since October.
Two of the champions’ goals came from Erling Haaland in one of their best performances in weeks.
City are sixth in the table on 34 points, 11 behind leaders Liverpool who have two games in hand.
West Ham, coming off a 5-0 rout by leaders Liverpool, are 13th with 23 points.
Savinho, who scored his first goal for Manchester City in the 2-0 win over Leicester City on Sunday — their first victory in five league games — set up three goals at Etihad Stadium, including the 10th-minute opener when defender Vladimir Coufal deflected the Brazilian’s angled shot into the far corner.
Haaland, whose double was his first in a Premier League game since September, struck in the 42nd minute when Savinho whipped in a long cross and the big Norwegian leapt sideways to head in.
Haaland netted his second shortly after the break when Savinho set him clear and the 24-year-old nonchalantly chipped over goalkeeper Alphonse Areola.
Phil Foden increased City’s lead in the 58th minute when Kevin De Bruyne pounced on Mohammed Kudus’ sloppy pass and sent a square pass to Foden for an easy tap-in.
Niclas Fullkrug grabbed a late consolation for the visitors.
At Selhurst Park, Crystal Palace equalised late to leave Chelsea winless in four Premier League games – and looking over their shoulder in the race for a Champions League slot – as Jean-Philippe Mateta cancelled out Cole Palmer’s first-half opener.
Chelsea had chances to seal victory before Mateta picked up a ball from Eberechi Eze in the 82nd minute and blasted home from close range to ease Palace’s relegation worries.
Palmer had given the visitors a deserved lead in the 14th minute when he fired in an angled shot after fine work on the left by winger Jadon Sancho who dummied his marker on the halfway line to sprint free and set up the England forward.
The draw left Chelsea in fourth place, only one point ahead of in-form Newcastle United who sit just outside the UEFA Champions League spots in fifth and won 2-1 at Tottenham Hotspur earlier on Saturday.
Crystal Palace are 15th, six points ahead of Ipswich Town who are in the highest of the three relegation positions and travel to Fulham on Sunday.
After a first 45 minutes dominated by Chelsea, the hosts started the second half stronger with Eze going close from a cross by Ismaila Sarr in the 49th minute. Chris Richards forced Robert Sanchez into a reflex save seven minutes later.
Chelsea had their own chances when Enzo Fernandez and Nicolas Jackson both shot narrowly wide in the space of a minute before Mateta’s equaliser.
At St Mary’s, Brentford thrashed relegation favourites Southampton – who had Super Eagles pair Joe Aribo and Paul Onuachu in their starting line-up – 5-0 to chalk up a long-overdue first away win of the Premier League season, helped by a Bryan Mbeumo double.
Kevin Schade put the mid-table visitors ahead in the sixth minute, the German forward flicking the ball past goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale after being fed through by Mikkel Damsgaard.
Cameroon international Mbeumo doubled the tally in the 62nd and added the third goal from the penalty spot in the 69th before then providing the assist for Keane Lewis-Potter in the second minute of stoppage time.
Yoane Wissa made it 5-0 in the fourth of five additional minutes with his 10th league goal of the campaign after earlier squandering a hatful of chances.
Brentford could have been comfortably ahead even in the first half-hour, with a Christian Norgaard header bouncing off the crossbar and Ramsdale making a low save to parry a curling Wissa effort.
Last in the league with six points from 20 matches, Southampton have only one win to their credit — 1-0 at home to Everton more than two months ago — and are 10 points from safety with the fewest goals in the top flight.
The meagre six points matches Sunderland’s dismal 2005-2006 tally as the worst in the Premier League era at this stage of the season.
New manager Ivan Juric, appointed last month , has lost all three games in charge so far.
RESULTS
Tottenham 1-2 Newcastle
Manchester City 4-1 West Ham
Crystal Palace 1-1 Chelsea
Southampton 0-5 Brentford
Aston Villa 2-1 Leicester City
Bournemouth 1-0 Everton
