Premier League: Cucurella seals Chelsea win over Leicester as Spurs fightback to earn draw with Bournemouth

Spanish full-back scores only goal of game at Stamford Bridge to move London club back into top four

Chelsea's Marc Cucurella, left, celebrates with his teammate Jadon Sancho after scoring against Leicester City. AP

Chelsea moved back into the Premier League top four after Marc Cucurella's goal earned them a 1-0 win over struggling Leicester City on Sunday.

A low strike into the bottom corner on the hour mark turned out to be the only goal of the game at Stamford Bridge.

In the first half, Cole Palmer's struggles in front of goal continued when his spot-kick was saved by Mads Hermansen, as the England attacker missed a penalty for the first time in his Premier League career.

Palmer had scored 12 out of 12 before this miss and he has now gone eight games in all competitions without adding to his 14 goals this season.

It was not a pretty victory by any stretch of the imagination but it did mean Chelsea leapfrogged Manchester City – who lost 1-0 at Nottingham Forest on Saturday – and into fourth place.

“It was a much-needed win, we knew Leicester would come here and give it their all,” said Chelsea attacker Jadon Sancho. “We stuck to the game plan and we got the three points.

“We had a lot of chances, we should have converted more goals. That's football, you score some and you lose some.

“He [Cucurella] does that in training quite often so I'm not surprised. We want to win every game.

“Next two games; Copenhagen on Thursday and then Arsenal. We have to be prepared.”

For Leicester, their disastrous run continues as the Foxes lost for the 12th time in 13 league games leaving Ruud van Nistelrooy's side second bottom, six points shy of safety.

“I get good at this after games,” said the Dutch coach. “A good performance on and off the ball, everything was there and I think the players deserved more.

“We came away with a penalty save to go into half-time at 0-0. It's the kind of luck you need sometimes to turn things around. Lots of positives again but we have to take the blow of taking nothing.

“We took one week to prepare this and it was really positive. We didn't expect it to be this good. it suited the players and the profiles we have. It gave us more stability defensively and more support up front with two nines. Something to build on.”

Son 'frustrated' despite Spurs comeback

Tottenham Hotspur fought back from two goals down to earn a battling point at home to Bournemouth.

Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou was in desperate need of a lift after Thursday's flat display in their Europa League defeat at AZ Alkmaar and had Cristian Romero back, but watched the Cherries take control in N17.

Marcus Tavernier's 42nd-minute goal gave Andoni Iraola's high-flying side a deserved half-time lead before Evanilson made it 2-0 after 65 minutes.

Micky van de Ven had been introduced for his eagerly-anticipated return by this point and after Pape Sarr reduced the deficit with a cross-cum-shot, two other substitutes combined to earn the hosts a point.

James Maddison played through Son, who was brought down by Kepa Arrizabalaga and the Tottenham captain picked himself up to deny Bournemouth a victory which would have sent them sixth.

But Son insisted after the game that he was “disappointed and frustrated” at not securing all three points.

“Bournemouth are a really good side but I still feel like it was not good enough for us,” said the South Korean.

“It is tough to say but Thursday was an unacceptable performance from everyone and today in the first half as well-being sloppy.

“I would not say it was a hangover but when your confidence is a little bit down you do things you would normally not do and make mistakes. We have to be strong because a massive game is coming.

“Everyone has quality in the Premier League but confidence makes a huge, huge difference.

“Especially after Thursday you think, 'we have to more and do better' and obviously things are a bit stressed but you have to stay calm and do the simple things and we will come out of this tunnel.”

Bournemouth moved up a place to eighth spot on 44 points as Tottenham stayed 13th with 34.

“You can see how far we've come in a couple of seasons,” insisted Bournemouth winger Marcus Tavernier.

“We should have put some more chances away but going 2-0 up, we have to see the game out. Everyone is disappointed in there but we can't dwell on it too much.

“Today we could not take our chances and we need to really work on that. We have to take it a game at a time but we know what is at stake.

"Every game now is important with 10 games left, we have to focus on bringing home as many points as possible.”