Chelsea boosted their bid to finish in the Premier League’s top four as Kai Havertz and Christian Pulisic starred in a 4-1 win at Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Thomas Tuchel’s side blew Palace away with a swaggering first half display inspired by Germany forward Havertz. Chelsea are up to fourth place and sit two points clear of fifth placed Liverpool.

West Ham, also two points behind the Blues, would reclaim fourth if they beat Leicester on Sunday. Havertz has endured a difficult time since his close-season move from Bayer Leverkusen, but he gave a rare glimpse of his quality with the opening goal in south London.

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The 21-year-old turned provider to set up Pulisic for the second goal before Kurt Zouma put Chelsea three up after 30 minutes. Christian Benteke got one back for Palace in the second half, but Pulisic netted again as Chelsea cruised to their first win in three league games.

“Kai will never be our emotional leader, we don’t expect him to be, but we expect to see his quality,” Tuchel said.

“Honestly he needed to show he could do better, that was the challenge personally for him. He got a second chance to show up after Porto. There is still room to improve in his finishing, he should have been more ruthless and could have scored more but it was a good step.”

Tuchel suffered his first defeat in 15 matches since replacing the sacked Frank Lampard when West Bromwich Albion claimed a 5-2 win at Stamford Bridge last weekend. That stunning setback was followed by a training ground bust-up between Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger and reserve keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga.

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But Chelsea had eased fears of a late-season collapse with a composed 2-0 win against Porto in the Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday.

This was another confident step in Chelsea’s revival under Tuchel, who faces a big week as the Blues take on Porto in the second leg on Tuesday before playing Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-finals on Saturday.

“It was a very good performance. It was clearly the performance where we created the most chances, the most touches in the opponent’s box and scored the most,” Tuchel said.

“This is not so hard to say, but you cannot compare it to Champions League matches or our game at Liverpool, you clearly cannot but I am happy with what we played.”

CHELSEA SOLVE $128M PUZZLE

Thanks in large part to Havertz, who started in the central striker’s role Timo Werner has failed to fill, Chelsea tore Palace to shreds in a blistering start. Havertz has arguably fared even worse than Werner in his first season, but in the eighth minute the German showed why the Blues paid £71 million ($A128 million) to sign him.

Taking Hudson-Odoi’s pass on the right-hand side of the Palace area, Havertz advanced with intent before stroking a fine finish in the far corner from an acute angle.

It was only his second league goal for Chelsea and his first in any competition since January.

Pulisic is another of Chelsea’s forwards who has slogged through a difficult season marred by injuries. But the United States winger joined forces with Havertz to double Chelsea’s lead 102 seconds later.

Havertz was the creator with a cutback that Pulisic took in stride before smashing a rising drive past Vicente Guaita from close-range. Chelsea hadn’t scored more than two goals in any of their previous 16 matches under Tuchel in all competitions.

Zouma ended that streak in the 30th minute as Mason Mount swung in a free-kick and the French defender rose above Gary Cahill to power his header past Guaita. Benteke reduced the deficit in the 63rd minute with a thumping header from Jeffrey Schlupp’s cross.

But Chelsea had the last word when Pulisic bundled home James’ deflected cross in the 78th minute.

LIVERPOOL END 764-MINUTE DROUGHT

Jurgen Klopp admitted a weight has been lifted from Liverpool’s shoulders after Trent Alexander-Arnold’s injury-time winner secured a 2-1 victory over Aston Villa and ended a record run of defeats at Anfield on Saturday.

The English champions had lost their previous six games at Anfield and fell behind again when Alisson Becker failed to keep out Ollie Watkins’s first-half strike. Liverpool were then controversially denied an equaliser as a dubious VAR review ruled out Roberto Firmino’s reply.

But Mohamed Salah levelled before Alexander-Arnold responded in style to the criticism he has received of late.

“It felt massive to win. A real relief,” said Klopp after victory briefly took Liverpool up to fourth in the Premier League.

“I can’t remember the last time we did it easy but it’s fine in our situation after losing six home games.”

Alexander-Arnold was dropped from England manager Gareth Southgate’s squad last month and was at fault for Real Madrid’s second goal as Liverpool lost the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final against the Spanish giants 3-1 on Tuesday.

But the right-back’s attacking output has been a prominent part of Liverpool’s success in the last three seasons under Klopp and the 22-year-old showed what he can do with a brilliant finish to curl the ball into the far corner.

Liverpool have now won three consecutive league games for the first time since the opening three matches of the season to boost their chances of climbing back into the Champions League next season.

The first cracks in a difficult season for Liverpool emerged when Villa won their first meeting of the season 7-2 at Villa Park in October.

That was prior to the Reds losing Virgil van Dijk to a season-ending injury that has destabilised their entire campaign. Villa have also suffered losing their talismanic talent in Jack Grealish over the past two months.

Dean Smith’s men have now won only twice in eight games without the England international to see their hopes of a top-four finish come up short.

Villa went in front against the run of play. Watkins’s strike was straight down the middle of the goal, but had too much power for Alisson’s weak hand two minutes before half-time.

Liverpool still thought they had levelled before the break when Firmino turned home a loose ball at the back post.

However, the goal was ruled out after a lengthy VAR review for offside against Diogo Jota in the build-up despite inconclusive evidence. To their credit, that disappointment did not knock the stuffing out of the hosts as they started the second period on the front foot.

Liverpool got their reward on 57 minutes when Salah headed home his 28th goal of the season after Emiliano Martinez could only parry Andy Robertson’s powerful strike.

Salah’s goal ended Liverpool’s run of 764 minutes without scoring from open play at Anfield in the Premier League.

Another Egyptian international was inches away from restoring Villa’s lead at the other end moments later as Trezeguet’s shot came back off the inside of the post. Klopp introduced Thiago Alcantara, Sadio Mane and Xherdan Shaqiri off the bench in a bid for a winner and the changes made the desired impact.

“We took a risk with the change,” said Klopp. “We brought in an extra midfielder and that had a proper impact. It’s exactly what you wish for.”

Martinez produced another stunning save to deny Thiago turning home Shaqiri’s cross, but the loose ball came to Alexander-Arnold, who with Southgate in attendance, fired a timely reminder of the quality he possesses.

MAN CITY SUFFER SHOCK LOSS TO 10-MAN LEEDS

Manchester City suffered just a fourth Premier League defeat of the season as 10-man Leeds United shocked the runaway leaders thanks to Stuart Dallas’s double in a 2-1 win at the Etihad on Saturday.

Dallas opened the scoring three minutes before half-time, but hope of a famous win for Marcelo Bielsa’s men seemed to have disappeared when captain Liam Cooper was shown a straight red card in first-half stoppage time.

The visitors withstood a City bombardment until Ferran Torres equalised 14 minutes from time. But Leeds still summoned the energy to pose a threat on the counter-attack and gained their reward when Dallas slotted below Ederson.

Bielsa’s first win in five meetings against Pep Guardiola propels Leeds up to ninth in their first season back in the English top flight for 16 years.

“The value of the victory increases because it was achieved in a game where we were dominated and demanded character, effort and personality,” said Bielsa, who Guardiola has hailed as one of the major influences on his glorious coaching career.

“From the adversity and effort of the players it was emotional for me. It was a rebellious team. They weren’t resigned to lose.”

Guardiola paid for heavily rotating his side with Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final, second leg, against Borussia Dortmund clearly his priority.

Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Riyad Mahrez, Phil Foden and Ruben Dias, who were among the stars left on the bench with City holding a slender 2-1 lead to take to Germany in midweek.

“We did not control it. We did not create enough for the forwards,” said Guardiola, who surprisingly did not introduce De Bruyne as a substitute.

“We arrived in the final third and after that we could not create much. At the end (the Leeds goal) can happen because they have a team where the transitions are fantastic.”

City still enjoy a 14-point lead at the top of the Premier League and need just 11 points from their remaining six matches to guarantee a third title in four years. But Manchester United could close the gap to eight points should the Red Devils win their two games in hand, the first of which is away to Tottenham on Sunday.

Raheem Sterling’s presence in what was largely a second string side is a reflection of how the England international has fallen down the pecking order in the past few weeks. Sterling did not even get on as a substitute in the first leg against Dortmund and did little to further his case for selection in midweek by slicing a great chance wide from Fernandinho’s cut-back.

Leeds had wasted a number of promising attacks with their final ball, but found the finishing touch when Patrick Bamford teed up Dallas to strike low in off the inside the post. The visitors’ joy was short-lived. Just four minutes later they were a man down.

Cooper played the ball first before crashing into Gabriel Jesus, but referee Andre Marriner upgraded a yellow card shown to the Leeds’ captain to a red after reviewing the incident on the pitch-side screen.

City were camped inside the Leeds half for almost the entire second-half, but were largely reduced to long-range efforts as Illan Meslier saved from Oleksandr Zinchenko, Fernandinho and Joao Cancelo.

Torres finally made City’s dominance pay with a first-time finish after Fernandinho picked out Silva inside the area. Yet, Leeds still went in search of a winner.

Raphinha outpaced Fernandinho, but was denied by a brilliant tackle by Brazilian compatriot Ederson. Moments later, Leeds got their reward as Dallas galloped clear down the middle of a vacant City defence to slot home.