Blues strengthen grip on title race as Man City slip up

Eden Hazard of Chelsea celebrates scoring against Aston Villa during their English Premier League match at Villa Park in Birmingham yesterday.

DPA/LondonChelsea tightened their grip on the Premier League title race as they won 2-1 at Aston Villa while champions Manchester City could only draw 1-1 with Hull City to slip seven points off the pace. Branislav Ivanovic scored the winner for Chelsea at Villa Park while only a last-gasp James Milner free kick spared City an even more disappointing day. With 14 games remaining apiece, Chelsea now lead City by seven points while Tottenham moved up to fifth with a 2-1 win over north London rivals Arsenal.  Eden Hazard gave Chelsea an early lead at Villa Park but Jores Okore headed an equalizer just after half-time. That was Villa’s first league goal in 659 minutes of play but they were beaten by a superb finish from full back Ivanovic. “This is a very important victory for us,” Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said. “It is one more hurdle in the title race, but there are many more.  Every game is difficult. It is possibly the only league in Europe where teams from the bottom can play against the top ones and not just make things difficult but win points. “I like (Manchester City drawing) but that was not my concern today.  I was never in the game asking for that result. We have to think about us and focus on our matches.” City’s inconsistent season continued as they drew 1-1 at home with Hull, who moved out of the bottom three. Meyler put Hull in front 10 minutes before half-time and though Milner spared City’s blushes with a superb free-kick in the 90th minute, the champions dropped two more points in the title race. “It is frustrating,” City manager Manuel Pellegrini admitted. “We did all we could to win but we are not in high performance in the attacking zone. “Every point you lose it is more difficult to recover. But in football you never know. We are not thinking about Chelsea. They are seven points clear but can lose games. But we are thinking about our performance.” Hull manager Steve Bruce admitted he’d have taken one point before a ball was kicked but was annoyed about the decision that led to the free-kick. “Sergio Aguero is a fantastic player but to me it looks like a tiny arm on the shoulder,” he said. “It is a shame because it is cruel. We did enough to win the match.” At White Hart Lane, Harry Kane secured himself hero status at Tottenham with both goals in a 2-1 win over Arsenal, dropping the Gunners to sixth.  Mesut Oezil put Arsenal in front early on but Kane equalized early in the second half and found the winner four minutes from time to lift Tottenham above Arsenal into fifth. “The fans were incredible, the atmosphere was like lightning and I will remember this for the rest of my career,” said Kane, who has now scored 22 goals in all competitions. “My first London derby, and to win the way we did by digging deep, it’s incredible. I probably won’t sleep tonight.” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger rued his side’s lack of creativity, saying “The first goal was a cheap goal and they didn’t create a lot. But we didn’t produce enough.” Wenger said the result was a blow to their hopes of a top-four spot but that his side remained more than capable of achieving it. “We have played two more away games than Spurs, who have played 13 at home and 11 away. We have played 13 away and 11 at home. It’s down to our home form now - we know we can win away from home but it will be a battle until the end. “It has been every year with Spurs. We just have to focus on us, because there are many teams fighting to get in there.” Elsewhere, Sadio Mane scored in injury time to give Southampton a 1-0 win at managerless Queens Park Rangers and put them clear in third on their own. Crystal Palace moved further away from trouble thanks to a 1-0 win at bottom side Leicester, Joe Ledley scoring the only goal 10 minutes into the second half. Swansea drew 1-1 with Sunderland while Everton were hosting Liverpool in the day’s late match.