Premier League round up: Chelsea's Champions League hopes suffer serious blow

Southampton record a 2-1 win to heap pressure back on Rafa Benitez, Gareth Bale inspires Tottenham to victory over Swansea City.

Southampton's Rickie Lambert, center, celebrates his goal against Chelsea with teammates during their English Premier League soccer match at St Mary's stadium, Southampton, England, Saturday, March 30Show more

Rafa Benitez saw his hopes of steering Chelsea back into the Champions League suffer a serious blow as Southampton claimed another prize Premier League scalp.

Rickie Lambert's 35th-minute free-kick proved enough to seal a 2-1 win at St Mary's after an early opener from Jay Rodriguez had been cancelled out by a header from John Terry.

Chelsea's shock loss allowed Tottenham to leapfrog into third place with a 2-1 win at Swansea, while Arsenal narrowed the gap behind them to just two points after crushing Reading 4-1.

Mauricio Pochettino's men gave their survival prospects a might boost as they clung on for the points thanks to a superb save from substitute keeper Kelvin Davis to deny Victor Moses.

Former Chelsea boss Andre Vilas Boas watched another superb display by Gareth Bale inspire Spurs to a valuable win in Wales.

Bale set up Jan Vertonghen for his seventh minute opener then flicked home a superb 21st-minute effort to increase his side's lead. Michu had given Swansea hope with a 71st-minute header.

Nigel Adkins' debut as Reading boss turned out to be one to forget as his side were sunk by the resurgent Gunners and dropped to the bottom of the table on goal difference.

Gervinho opened the scoring after 11 minutes and Santi Cazorla and Olivier Giroud increased the Gunners' lead before Hal Robson Kanu gave the visitors a glimmer of hope in the 68th minute.

But Arsene Wenger's men sealed their win in the 77th minute when Adrian Mariappa fouled Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the box and Mikel Arteta stroked home the resulting penalty.

Manchester City kept up their increasingly futile chase of city rivals United with a 4-0 cruise over Newcastle at the Etihad Stadium.

Sir Alex Ferguson's men had temporarily gone 18 points clear at the top after Titus Bramble's 27th-minute own goal gave United a 1-0 win over sinking Sunderland in the lunchtime kick-off at the Stadium of Light.

But City responded by doing their bit with Carlos Tevez and David Villa giving Roberto Mancini's men the first-half advantage before Vincent Kompany and an own goal from James Perch completed their easy win.

Roberto Martinez's Wigan moved out of the relegation zone thanks to a potentially priceless late strike from Aruna Kone to beat Norwich 1-0 at the DW Stadium.

Wigan had laboured for much of the game but Kone fired his 10th goal of the season with nine minutes left to give his side a huge boost in their battle to avoid the drop.

Andy Carroll scored twice as West Ham eased their own relegation fears with a 3-1 win over West Bromwich Albion at Upton Park.

Carroll headed a 16th-minute opener and after Gary O'Neil made it 2-0 Carroll added his second after 80 minutes.

Graeme Dorrans pulled one back for Albion from the penalty spot before Youssouf Mulumbu was sent off in injury time for an angry reaction to a refereeing decision.

* Press Association

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