There was no way through for Chelsea as Watford halted their recent resurgence in a goalless Premier League stalemate at Vicarage Road while Everton piled more woe on Newcastle United with a 3-0 victory on Wednesday.
Chelsea's players must look at themselves and start performing, former Blues stalwart Frank Lampard said as speculation continues to swirl over the future of manager Jose Mourinho.
The Premier League champions have endured a dismal season so far, losing eight of the 16 games they have played in all competitions, and were knocked out of the League Cup, that they also won last season, in a penalty shootout against Stoke City on Tuesday night.
Andre Villas-Boas knows comparisons with Jose Mourinho are inevitable but he was quick to distance himself from his former boss during his first news conference as Chelsea manager on Wednesday.
"Diego Costa's out which means we have to solve that problem in 24 hours," new interim coach Guus Hiddink told reporters.
IMAGES from English Premier League matches played on Sunday.
Chelsea's Ruben Loftus-Cheek had a Europa League night to remember by scoring the first hat-trick of his career as the midfielder inspired them to a 3-1 home win over Belarus champions BATE Borisov on Thursday.
Chelsea took a major step towards the Premier League title with an impressive 3-0 win over Everton at Goodison Park on Sunday.
A summary of Saturday's action in the English Premier League.
Chelsea beat Newcastle United 2-0 for a 10th successive Premier League home win at their Stamford Bridge stronghold on Saturday to reassert themselves as Premier League leaders while champions Manchester City drew at Everton.
Messi opened the scoring after two minutes and eight seconds, the quickest goal of his career, slipping the ball through Thibaut Courtois' legs from a tight angle.
Florent Malouda scored a late winner as Chelsea came from behind to beat visitors West Bromwich Albion 2-1 Saturday, while Arsenal's woes deepened with a 2-0 defeat by Liverpool in the Premier League.
Newcastle United's Papiss Cisse struck twice in a 2-1 victory against English Premier League leaders Chelsea.
England centre back Gary Cahill is so frustrated by a lack of first-team football at Chelsea that he wants to leave the club in an attempt to safeguard his international place at the European Championship in the summer.
A 78th-minute header by David Luiz and a late Ramires goal gave Chelsea a vital 2-0 home win over Manchester City, which took them above their guests into third place in the Premier League on Sunday.
Frank Lampard struck four goals as Chelsea rebounded from their FA Cup reverse at Barnsley at the weekend to defeat Derby 6-1 in EPL.
Following Chelsea's tame draw against Manchester City, questions are being raised about the Jose Mourinho-managed team's game plan and attitude.
There is a stark contrast between the two teams' form, with Chelsea having won 10 league games in succession to open up a six-point lead at the top while Palace have managed only one victory in their last 10 matches.
Manchester United and Chelsea will approach their looming Champions League final in contrasting moods.
Chelsea beat Bayern Munich 4-2 while while Milan beat city rivals Inter 2-0 in the UEFA Champions League first leg quarter-finals.\n\n
Manchester City suffered their first home Premier League loss in eight months as a shock 3-2 defeat by Crystal Palace on Saturday left Pep Guardiola's champions trailing leaders Liverpool by four points.
Chelsea led a trio of English clubs into the Europa League quarter-finals on Thursday after Tottenham Hotspur survived a thrilling Inter Milan fightback to advance on away goals and Newcastle United got a late winner.
IMAGES from Saturday's action in the English Premier League.
Chelsea will take on Valencia in a Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday amid fresh speculation that coach Jose Mourinho is in his final season at Stamford Bridge.
Liverpool opened up a seven-point gap at the top of the English Premier League with a 1-0 win at Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday, while Arsenal's poor away form continued with a 1-0 defeat at West Ham United.
Chelsea, galvanised by the second-half introduction of Fernando Torres, capped a successful week by coming from behind to beat Sunderland 2-1 to leapfrog Tottenham Hotspur into third place in the Premier League on Sunday.
Salomon Kalou's second-half double against Middlesbrough moved Chelsea up to second in the English Premier League on Wednesday after Liverpool stuttered again by conceding a late equaliser to draw 1-1 at Wigan Athletic. Liverpool wasted the chance to go level on points with leaders Manchester United after on-loan Egyptian striker Mido converted an 83rd-minute penalty on his debut to earn Wigan a point at the JJB Stadium.
Harry Kane's superb scoring streak continued as Tottenham Hotspur survived some late nerves to beat Everton 3-2 at White Hart Lane on Sunday and cut Chelsea's lead at the top of the Premier League to seven points.
Chelsea kept up their 100 percent start to the English Premier League season by snatching a 2-1 win at a stubborn Newcastle United on Sunday, grabbing victory thanks to a late own goal by DeAndre Yedlin.
Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech has made a surprise return to Chelsea's training ground ahead of Sunday's big London derby after Adidas sent a consignment of gloves to his former club by mistake. Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink, whose misfiring champions travel to Cech's Premier League leaders on Sunday, made light of the situation at a news conference on Friday. "I was here when Petr showed up. It was nice to see him," the Dutchman told reporters at the Cobham facility to the south-west of London. "We had a chat here. Almost everyone was gone already, it was late afternoon....we tried to hide them, which he did not accept. Also we tried to make them a little bit slippery but he discovered that also. "They were wrongly sent here and we gave them back. It was nice. That's the story."
IMAGES from the Premier League matches played on Saturday
Manchester United's top-four aspirations suffered a setback as Louis van Gaal's side were blown away 3-0 by Everton.
'We lost two games but these two games were totally different. Against Crystal Palace we didn't deserve to lose. Today we deserved to lose the game'
European champions Chelsea have denied British media reports linking former manager Avram Grant to an assistant role alongside interim coach Rafael Benitez at Stamford Bridge.
A summary of Thursday's matches in the English Premier League.
Images from the English Premier League matches played on Saturday
Manchester United had English Premier League leaders Liverpool looking anxiously over their shoulders after a 3-0 drubbing of Chelsea on Sunday put the champions just five points off the pace with two games in hand. Barcelona left it late to win at Osasuna and go 12 points clear in Spain while David Beckham played almost all the match on his debut for AC Milan, a 2-2 draw at AS Roma.
Chelsea maintained their iron grip on top spot with a 2-1 win at Crystal Palace while Southampton recorded one of the biggest victories in Premier League history when they crushed a woeful Sunderland side 8-0 at St Mary'son Saturday.
Rattled by embarrassing domestic defeats, Chelsea looked jittery before Olivier Giroud settled their nerves with a close range tap-in shortly after halftime at StamfordBridge following good work by N'Golo Kante and Willian in the build-up.
