London (AFP)

Chelsea grabbed 3rd place in the Premier League on Tuesday, matchday 34, when they beat Crystal Palace (3-2), while Leicester brought just one Arsenal point (1-1 ) and is relegated to the fourth step.

- Chelsea are getting closer to the C1

Winner at Crystal Palace (3-2), with a goal from Olivier Giroud, Chelsea confirms his claims for a place in C1 next season.

Faced with the Eagles, 13 points from European places and even more (15) from the red zone, Franck Lampard's men had to work despite their good start, but they had the good idea to be formidably effective.

From the 6th minute, Willian took advantage of an injury from defender Gary Cahill to escape on the right flank and serve behind Olivier Giroud, already scorer against Watford (3-0), who only had to push the ball to score his 5th goal of the season (1-0).

Just before half an hour of play, Christian Pulisic, who walks in the footsteps of Eden Hazard, doubled the stake with a strike in the full skylight (2-0, 27th).

And Tammy Abraham, well served by Callum Hudson-Odoï, scored a third goal with a precise strike (3-1, 71st) on the fourth shot on target for the Blues.

Fortunately for them, because defensively, they were not blameless.

Goalkeeper Kepa, still as little reassuring, bowed on a distant and powerful strike from Wilfried Zaha but still very central (2-1, 31st).

The end of the match was not entirely peaceful either because of the goal of Christian Benteke a few seconds after that of Abraham (3-2, 72nd).

In the other match of the early evening, Watford (17th) won a capital victory in the maintenance race against the last, Norwich (2-1), thanks to a superb return from Danny Welbeck, who allows him to take 4 steps ahead of the red zone.

- Leicester's dream is crumbling

On the podium continuously since the 6th day, Leicester slowly sees his dream of finding the Champions League, after 2016/2017, slip through his fingers.

In slow motion since long before the three-month forced truce linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, Brendan Rodgers' men can no longer find the little spark that carried them.

Faced with Arsenal which has, it is true, nothing more to do with the hesitant and harmless team at the start of the championship, the Foxes had to wait to play in numerical superiority for seven minutes to equalize (84th) by the inevitable Jamie Vardy, who consolidated his place as the top scorer (22) in the championship, ahead of the scorer of Arsenal Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (20).

A deserved equalization, which could have come from the 55th on a volley from Kelechi Iheanacho, on a dive center of Vardy, but which rewarded a second largely dominating act after a passage of 3-4-3 in 4-4-2.

But during the first 45 they failed to gain respect from Gunners in clear progress.

With this 50th point, obtained on a goal from Aubameyang, served by Bukayo Saka (1-0, 21st), the Londoners (7th) can still believe in a European place by the championship, especially if the 6th place, occupied by Wolverhampton , two points ahead of them, became qualifying thanks to the English Cup, for example.

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