Chelsea eased the pressure on Enzo Maresca with a 4-0 thrashing of sorry Southampton.
A run of three straight defeats and only two wins from their last 10 Premier League fixtures had increased the scrutiny on the former Leicester boss.
Protests occurred at Stamford Bridge against the club’s ownership but fans went home happy after first-half goals by Christopher Nkunku, Pedro Neto and Levi Colwill were followed by a 78th-minute effort from Marc Cucurella.
It helped Chelsea return to fourth in the table, leapfrogging Bournemouth – who lost 2-1 at Brighton.
The battle between two unlikely top-four contenders went the way of the Seagulls after Danny Welbeck grabbed a winner with 15 minutes left.
Joao Pedro’s 12th-minute spot-kick had been cancelled out by Justin Kluivert’s wonder goal just past the hour mark but Bournemouth were caught out again and suffered back-to-back defeats to drop to seventh.
Fulham are one place behind Brighton in ninth after they returned to winning ways with a 2-1 triumph at Wolves.
Marco Silva’s side were indebted to fast starts with Ryan Sessegnon opening the scoring after 58 seconds at Molineux and Rodrigo Muniz able to follow it up with a 47th-minute strike to render Joao Gomes’ first-half effort a mere consolation.
Ismaila Sarr inspired Crystal Palace to a thumping 4-1 victory over Aston Villa at Selhurst Park.
Sarr put Palace in front at half-time with a goal after 29 minutes and the second period burst into life when Morgan Rogers equalised in the 52nd minute.
Seven minutes later and Jean-Philippe Mateta had put the hosts back in front before Sarr completed his brace with 71 minutes played.
Eddie Nketiah added gloss to the score with a stoppage-time goal to help Oliver Glasner’s men move above Tottenham and up to 12th in the table.
