WATCH CHELSEA GOALS TODAY.........Chelsea beat Bournemouth 3-0 to clinch record consecutive victories...SEE FULL TABLE

hehehe.....Spanish forward Pedro Rodriguez scored twice as red-hot leaders Chelsea crushed Bournemouth 3-0 on Monday to register a club-record 12th consecutive Premier League victory.

Pedro struck either side of Eden Hazard’s 50th English league goal at Stamford Bridge as Antonio Conte’s side opened up a provisional nine-point lead at the summit in the Boxing Day action.

Chelsea’s victory over Bournemouth left them one win short of Arsenal’s 2002 record of 13 successive victories within the same top-flight season.

With Diego Costa and N’Golo Kante suspended, Conte paired Cesc Fabregas and Nemanja Matic in midfield, with Hazard starting up front, flanked by Willian and Pedro.
Pedro broke the deadlock in the 24th minute, curling a left-foot shot into the top corner from Fabregas’s pass following a neatly worked corner.
Hazard made it 2-0 four minutes into the second half, rolling a penalty into the bottom-right corner after he had drawn a foul from Simon Francis, with Pedro adding a deflected shot in stoppage time.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored his 17th goal of the season as Sunderland manager David Moyes was condemned to a 3-1 defeat on his return to Manchester United on Monday.

Dutch defender Daley Blind opened the scoring in the 39th minute at Old Trafford with his first Premier League goal since September 2015.

Late strikes from Ibrahimovic — his 50th for club and country in 2016 — and substitute Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who scored with an audacious back-heel, confirmed victory.

It ensured that United, without injured captain Wayne Rooney, extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 11 matches, despite Fabio Borini’s spectacular consolation for the visitors.

United remain sixth in the league table, but drew level on points with fifth-place Tottenham Hotspur, who visit Southampton on Wednesday.

Sunderland and Moyes, sacked by United in April 2014, stay in the bottom three.

United captain Rooney was left out of the squad after picking up an injury in training, but Jose Mourinho’s side coped without him to record a fourth successive Premier League victory.

United laboured before taking the lead and were grateful to goalkeeper David de Gea for getting them out of trouble twice in the first half.

He leapt athletically to his right to push away Patrick van Aanholt’s free-kick in the 19th minute.

The Spain international then reacted smartly amid defensive chaos to block Victor Anichebe’s close-range effort and nick the ball away as Borini followed up, causing the former Liverpool forward to miskick.

In between those two moments, United had a penalty appeal rejected as Juan Mata tumbled under Lamine Kone’s challenge.

– Pickford acrobatics –

Paul Pogba was also very unlucky not to score with a curling, deflected shot that visiting goalkeeper Jordan Pickford touched onto the outside of the post.

The warnings got louder for Sunderland as half-time approached. Pogba lashed a dipping shot over the bar from 15 yards when he probably should have scored, but United soon were in front.

Marcos Rojo played in Ibrahimovic on the left edge of the penalty area and he teed up a perfect short pass for Blind to run onto and drill a shot into the bottom-right corner.

A second goal might have arrived before half-time, with Pickford comfortably thwarting Pogba, then making a rather more difficult save to push aside a low, 25-yard free-kick from Mata.

Pogba headed over a good chance early in the second half as United sought to assert their superiority, with Ibrahimovic then fizzing a shot just over after being played in down the right by Mata.

In an attempt to put the match out of Sunderland’s reach, Mourinho brought on Mkhitaryan with just over an hour played.

The Armenia captain almost made an immediate impact, controlling Mata’s excellent cross-field pass on the edge of the penalty area and bending a shot just wide.

Pickford then made a fine save with his feet to deny Ibrahimovic, but could do nothing when a defensive error on the halfway line allowed Pogba to slot the former Sweden international through for a second.

Mkhitaryan’s third goal in three appearances had the home fans on their feet to applaud, although replays suggested the former Borussia Dortmund schemer may have been offside.

Borini’s consolation, an unstoppable, looping shot from 25 yards after Rojo had headed out Jason Denayer’s cross, was a special goal in its own right, but it came too late to affect the outcome.

Olivier Giroud prevented Arsenal losing more ground, his 86th-minute header snatching a 1-0 win over West Bromwich Albion to lift Arsene Wenger’s side above Manchester City into third place.

Beaten 2-1 by Everton and then City on their two previous outings, Arsenal narrowly avoided going three league games without winning for the first time since January 2012.

Alexis Sanchez’s shot against the post looked to be the closest Arsenal would come until Giroud marked his return to the starting XI by looping a header over Ben Foster with four minutes to play.

Premier League

Standings

#	Team	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	PTS
1	Chelsea	18	15	1	2	38	11	27	46
2	Man. City	18	12	3	3	39	20	19	39
3	Liverpool	17	11	4	2	41	20	21	37
4	Arsenal	18	11	4	3	39	19	20	37
5	Tottenham	17	9	6	2	29	12	17	33
6	Man United	18	9	6	3	27	18	9	33
7	Everton	18	7	5	6	23	21	2	26
8	Southampton	17	6	6	5	17	16	1	24
9	West Brom	18	6	5	7	23	22	1	23
10	Watford	18	6	4	8	22	30	-8	22
11	West Ham	18	6	4	8	23	32	-9	22
12	Stoke City	17	5	6	6	19	24	-5	21
13	Bournemouth	18	6	3	9	23	31	-8	21
14	Burnley FC	18	6	2	10	17	28	-11	20
15	Middlesbrough	18	4	6	8	16	20	-4	18
16	Leicester City	18	4	5	9	23	31	-8	17
17	Crystal Palace	18	4	4	10	29	33	-4	16
18	Sunderland	18	4	2	12	16	31	-15	14
19	Swansea City	18	3	3	12	21	41	-20	12
20	Hull City	18	3	3	12	14	39	-25	12