Chelsea’s inexorable Premier League title march continued with a consummate 3-0 triumph over Tottenham Hotspur and champions Manchester City stayed second with a 4-1 canter at Sunderland on Wednesday. Southampton’s challenge suffered further deflation with a 1-0 defeat at Arsenal, but the pacesetters took full advantage with Chelsea making it 21 games unbeaten this season thanks to goals from Eden Hazard, Didier Drogba and Loic Remy.

The 36-year-old Drogba proved a splendid replacement for suspended top-scorer Diego Costa, grabbing his first chance within two minutes of Hazard’s 19th-minute opener before his replacement Remy also netted to seal the points. The performance of the seemingly ageless Drogba earned high praise from his teammate Hazard. “he’s important for the team and every game he comes in, he plays very well,” the Belgian said.

City manager Manuel Pellegrini had bad news for Premier League defenders too by suggesting that we have not seen the best from the Argentine yet. “Sergio is only 26 and he can improve every day,” he said. “At the moment we are seeing very high performances from him. Not only is he scoring but he’s playing well as well.”

Southampton slumped to a second successive defeat with an 89th-minute Alexis Sanchez goal finally breaking their resistance at the Emirates.

Arsenal are now 10 points adrift of Chelsea but for most of the night, it had seemed Fraser Forster’s heroic efforts in the Southampton goal would earn them a point. “Alexis Sanchez can dig deep and has such desire and a will to win, he still finds that resource to get you something special,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said.

The win lifted Arsenal to sixth place, 13 points behind Chelsea. Hull City squeezed out of the relegation zone with a 1-1 draw at Everton, Sone Aluko scoring a 59th-minute equaliser after a 34th-minute Romelu Lukaku effort for the home side.