Everton midfielder Ross Barkley celebrates after scoring a goal against West Ham United during the English Premier League match at Goodison Park in Liverpool, northwest England, yesterday.
Liverpool: Diego Costa's sublime strike sealed Chelsea's 2-0 success against Southampton yesterday as the Blues chalked up a fourth successive Premier League victory.
Costa doubled Chelsea's lead with a fine finish from 25 yards after Eden Hazard had put Antonio Conte's side ahead early in the first half at St Mary's.
Inflicting Southampton's first home league defeat since February gave Chelsea four league wins in a row for the first time since April 2015, when they were on the verge of lifting the title under Jose Mourinho.
While it is too early to predict another Chelsea charge to the title, the Blues have hit a promising vein of form since Conte switched to his preferred system with a three-man defence.
Their win on the south-coast lifted them above Tottenham into fourth place in the table and within one point of leaders Manchester City.
Southampton remain in mid-table after a first defeat in six league games stalled their recent fine run.
Earliler, Ross Barkley's excellent goal sealed an impressive 2-0 win for Everton over West Ham ending a four match winless run in the league.
For Barkley -- who had been dropped both from the England squad and the Everton starting line-up this season as his form dipped -- it was his first goal since the opening day of the season against Spurs.
Belgian international Romelu Lukaku -- who set up Barkley for his goal -- had opened the scoring for the hosts with his 50th for the club.
It also maintained his extraordinary record against the Hammers as it was his ninth goal in as many Premier League matches against them since he moved to Everton.
Everton stay sixth, just five points off the top trio of Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool -- West Ham stay firmly in the bottom half of the table three points above the relegation places.
The hosts took the lead five minutes into the second-half as Winston Reid's poor clearance was played back into the Hammers box.Yet again the extra hunger of the Everton players played a decisive role as Yannick Bolasie charged into the area and got to the ball ahead of Reid after Adrian had saved Seamus Coleman's shot -- his perfectly delivered cross was headed into the empty net by Lukaku.
Robles then produced a spectacular diving save to deny Mark Noble as West Ham turned on the pressure searching for the equaliser.
