Nottingham Forest fought back from 1-0 down to beat Brighton 3-1 and climb out of the bottom three, while Brentford and Liverpool won at Chelsea and West Ham respectively.
Nottingham Forest gave their Premier League survival hopes a much-needed shot in the arm after beating Brighton 3-1 at the City Ground.
Forest were on a seemingly irreversible slide back to the Championship after a horror run of 11 games without a win going back to February, but they stopped the rot and moved out of the bottom three.
Another defeat had been on the cards after the Seagulls went ahead through Facundo Buonanotte’s goal on his first Premier League start after Brennan Johnson had missed an early penalty for Forest.
But an own goal by Pascal Gross on the stroke of half-time followed by second-half efforts from Danilo and Morgan Gibbs-White gave them a vital win.
This will renew belief that they can avoid the drop in their first season in the top flight in 23 years and also probably ends any lingering doubts over Steve Cooper’s future.
Brighton were looking to bounce back from the heart-breaking FA Cup semi-final defeat to Manchester United, but this loss hurt their European ambitions as they dropped to eighth, but they do have games in hand on the teams above them.
Chelsea sunk to yet another dispiriting home defeat as Brentford inflicted a fifth consecutive loss on Frank Lampard with a 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge.
The visitors led through Cesar Azpilicueta’s first-half own goal when substitute Bryan Mbeumo ran half the length of the pitch, unchallenged by anybody in blue, to slam home and condemn the hosts to a sixth winless game in a row on this ground.
The numbers are worthy of the crisis in which Chelsea find themselves. The team have scored one goal in their last seven games, and are winless in eight.
If, as expected, Mauricio Pochettino is confirmed as permanent successor to Graham Potter by the time they play Arsenal next Tuesday, the club will have had four different managers since their last victory.
Such have Chelsea’s ambitions receded that a top-half finish in the Premier League from this point would rank as a success, but even that abridged, constricted dream appears vanishingly unlikely after this.
Brentford did not need to be spectacular, merely to wait patiently whilst Chelsea passed the ball about aimlessly in front of them, then take their only two chances of the match when they came.
Joel Matip’s towering header saw Liverpool come from behind to beat West Ham 2-1 and pick up a third straight win.
The Hammers led through a wonder strike from Lucas Paqueta but were pegged back by Cody Gakpo’s drive.
And moments after Jarrod Bowen had a goal disallowed for offside, Matip struck from a corner to halt West Ham’s recent revival.
West Ham were convinced they should have had a late penalty when Thiago’s arm hit the ball as he fell in the area, but despite a VAR check nothing was given.
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