CHELSEA kept a firm grip on third place in the Premier League on Sunday after a hard-fought 1-0 win over West Ham at Stamford Bridge.
Christian Pulisic bagged the winning goal in the 90th minute to break the hearts of the Hammers who had defended resolutely.
Three minutes before Pulisic scored, Jorginho’s penalty was saved by Lukasz Fabianski. West Ham paid the ultimate price in the end after Craig Dawson was sent off for bringing down Romelu Lukaku in the box.
With the win, Chelsea stayed in third place in the table, five points ahead of fourth-placed Arsenal who have played a game more.
West Ham are effectively out of the race for top four as they are seventh, eight points adrift of Arsenal.
In France, Super Eagles forward Moses Simon scored a goal and assisted another as Nantes defeated Bordeaux 5-3 in a high-scoring Ligue 1 encounter.
Simon has now scored four goals and made eight assists in 28 Ligue 1 appearances this season for Nantes, who are in ninth spot.
In Italy, Nigerian forward Isaac Success was on target as Udinese drew 2-2 at Bologna.
Success assisted Udinese’s first goal for Italian-Nigerian left-back Destiny Udogie, before scoring himself to take his contributions to two goals and seven assists in 20 Serie A appearances this season.
Both Udinese and Bologna are comfortably in mid-table with the season winding down.
Also in Italy, Victor Osimhen did not score as Napoli blew a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 at Empoli.
Osimhen played all 90 minutes as Napoli conceded three goals in seven minutes (between the 80th and 87th minutes) to drop out of the title race.
Luciano Spalletti’s side are third with 67 points from 34 games, five points adrift of leaders Inter Milan, who have played 33 games.
