Chelsea 8-11 for title after 11th consecutive win

CHELSEA moved nine points clear at the top of the table and are now 8-11 to win the title after beating Crystal Palace 1-0 at Selhurst Park as the Blues recorded their 11th straight Premier League victory.

Diego Costa scored the only goal, taking his tally to 13 for the campaign, and bet365 reacted by rating Chelsea 7-1 (from 10-1) to break Arsenal’s record of 14 consecutive wins.

Bournemouth are next up for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Boxing Day before Stoke visit west London on New Year’s Eve.

Trips to Tottenham and Leicester follow in 2017 with the record in sight for Antonio Conte’s relentless leaders.

However, it was not the perfect outcome at Selhurst as Costa and N’Golo Kante will be suspended for the Bournemouth clash after picking up fifth yellow cards of the season and Betway reacted by pushing Chelsea out to 2-5 to beat the Cherries.

Palace are 17th, one point clear of trouble but it is Hull who will spend Christmas at rock-bottom after their unfortunate 1-0 defeat at West Ham, who won through a second-half Mark Noble penalty.

Swansea’s troubles continued with a 3-0 defeat at Middlesbrough which saw their manager Bob Bradley cut to 10-11 by Betfair and Paddy Power to be the next Premier League boss to leave his current position.

Sunderland are also in the bottom three despite a 1-0 success against Watford.

Leicester staged a dramatic comeback at Stoke to draw 2-2.

Jamie Vardy was sent off after 28 minutes and the hosts led 2-0 at the break thanks to goals from Bojan (penalty) and Joe Allen.

However, Leonardo Ulloa halved the deficit with 16 minutes remaining and Daniel Amartey equalised to salvage an unlikely point for the champions.