All four of the games in our round-up ended 1-0.
In the day’s early game, Crystal Palace won 3-1 at West Ham United, before Manchester United beat Sunderland 2-0 live on Setanta Sports. The full reports for those clashes can be found, respectively, here and here.
Papiss Cisse scored the only goal as Newcastle beat second-from-bottom Aston Villa at St James’s Park.
Villa struggled during the opening exchanges but, after Gabriel Agbonlahor had a goal correctly disallowed for offside, the visitors began to threaten regularly for a time, in particular through Christian Benteke.
However, Tim Sherwood’s men fell behind to an effort from Cisse, who finished clinically after Jores Okore had failed to clear Daryl Janmaat’s dangerous cross.
Emmanuel Riviere went close with a header from a Sammy Ameobi corner soon afterwards, as Villa survived to the break with just a single-goal deficit.
During the second period, Tim Krul made an excellent save to deny Tom Cleverley an equaliser, before Benteke’s strike was blocked by Fabricio Coloccini and the Belgian had a goal chalked off, again for offside.
Newcastle almost grabbed a second, as Ayoze Perez headed an attempt off a post, but a single goal proved to be enough on the day.
Saido Berahino’s very early strike gave West Brom victory over Southampton at The Hawthorns.
The hosts took the lead when Berahino smashed in a powerful strike after just two minutes.
West Brom wasted a succession of opportunities to increase their advantage ahead of the break, before losing Berahino to a muscle injury early in the second half, with Youssouf Mulumbu called in to replace the goal-scorer.
After Graziano Pelle missed a fantastic opportunity to level from Ryan Bertrand’s ball across goal, Darren Fletcher fired over at the other end, when given the chance to put the game to bed.
Pelle would miss another decent opportunity before the final whistle, as the Saints lost ground in the battle for Champions League qualification.
Swansea came away from Burnley with all three points.
During an even and relatively open first half, the closest that either side came was through the hosts’ Ashley Barnes, who saw a close-range attempt saved well by Lukasz Fabianski.
In the build-up to the break, Bafetimbi Gomis had two decent opportunities for Swansea, but was unable to convert either.
The Swans hit the front 20 minutes into the second half, as Gomis flicked on Jonjo Shelvey’s corner and Jack Cork struck the crossbar, resulting in Kieran Trippier and goalkeeper Tom Heaton contriving to nudge the ball into their own goal.
The Clarets pushed desperately for an equaliser but came up short, remaining in the Premier League’s relegation zone as a result.
Stoke beat Hull City in a turgid affair at the Britannia Stadium, as Peter Crouch grabbed yet another headed goal.
Hull started fairly brightly but the clash soon descended into dullness, with little in the way of attacking threats during the first period.
The pattern of the first half continued into the second, but Stoke eventually began to put the Hull defence under pressure before taking the lead when Charlie Adam’s diagonal cross was headed home expertly by fellow substitute Crouch. The former England striker, who had been on the pitch for less than a minute, equalled Alan Shearer’s Premier League record for headed goals with the effort.
In the closing stages, Hull were unable to mount much of an assault, ensuring that Steve Bruce’s men remain four points above the drop zone.
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