Football: Chelsea back to top of Premier League

Chelsea striker Diego Costa celebrates scoring his team's second goal in their 2-0 win over Newcastle at Stamford Bridge. Photo / Getty Images

Chelsea opened up a two-point lead at the top of the Premier League this morning (NZT) as they beat Newcastle 2-0 while rivals Manchester City were held to a 1-1 draw at Everton.

Oscar and Diego Costa scored the goals as Chelsea moved clear at the top while Steven Naismith's equaliser cancelled out Fernandinho's opener for Manchester City at Everton.

The results left Chelsea two points better off than City and 12 clear of third-placed Manchester United, who play fourth-placed Southampton on Monday.

The bottom two at the start of the day, Leicester and Burnley, both won as they beat Aston Villa 1-0 and Queens Park Rangers 2-1 respectively.

In the early match, Liverpool maintained their recent improvement with a 1-0 win at Sunderland, where Lazar Markovic's early goal moved them to within four points of the top four.

Sunderland played the last 40 minutes with 10 men after the sending-off of Liam Bridcutt and the result left Liverpool eighth and Sunderland 15th.

Liverpool have now lost just one match in their past 13.

"We've still got a way to go, but the exciting thing is that in my two years here we've always been better in the second part of the season, that's the business end," said manager Brendan Rodgers.

"We've still got (Daniel) Sturridge, (Raheem) Sterling, (Adam) Lallana and (Glen) Johnson to come back into the squad.

"It's going how I hoped it would and hopefully we can continue with this momentum."

Sunderland manager Gus Poyet said his men were not ambitious enough on the day.

"We did practically nothing in the first half apart from wait for Liverpool to score," he said.

"Then we had a go."

West Brom moved out of the bottom three with a 1-0 win over Hull, while West Ham were held to a 1-1 draw at Swansea in the other afternoon game.

-AAP