EPL Results: Saturday's Week 34 Scores, Updated 2016 Premier League Table, Odds

Sunderland's hopes of surviving relegation from the Premier League were handed a significant boost on Saturday as they beat fellow strugglers and closest rivals Norwich City 3-0 at Carrow Road to close to within one point of safety.

The Black Cats (8-11) are now favourites to avoid the drop of the three teams still in serious contention of being relegated following Aston Villa's confirmed demotion. Norwich (1-2) are widely expected by the bookmakers to join Sunderland's 19th-placed north-east rivals Newcastle United (1-3) in the second tier for next season. 

The home loss is bad news for Alex Neil's side. In spite of their superior points haul, Sunderland have edged considerably closer to the Canaries and still have an additional match in hand. Similarly, Newcastle's 3-0 triumph over Swansea City means they have closed the gap to the survival line to three points.

Aston Villa's 1-0 away defeat to Manchester United means they are doomed to play Championship football next term, leaving two relegation slots still to be decided, with three teams challenging for the unwanted spots. 

Here are the full results from Saturday's fixtures:

Home	Score	Away
Norwich City	0-3	Sunderland
Everton	1-1	Southampton
Manchester United	1-0	Aston Villa
Newcastle United	3-0	Swansea City
West Bromwich Albion	0-1	Watford

Here's what those results mean for the relegation odds, per Oddschecker:

Team	Odds
Newcastle United	1-3
Norwich City	1-2
Sunderland	8-11
Crystal Palace	250-1
Swansea City	500-1

The updated standings:

Position	Team	MP	W	D	L	F	A	D	Pts
1	Leicester City	33	21	9	3	57	31	+26	72
2	Tottenham Hotspur	33	18	11	4	60	25	+35	65
3	Arsenal	32	17	8	7	55	33	+22	59
4	Manchester City	32	17	6	9	58	33	+25	57
5	Manchester United	33	16	8	9	40	30	+10	56
6	West Ham United	32	13	13	6	52	40	+12	52
7	Southampton	34	14	9	11	45	35	+10	52
8	Liverpool	31	13	9	9	50	42	+8	48
9	Stoke City	33	13	8	12	37	43	-6	47
10	Chelsea	32	11	11	10	49	42	+7	44
11	Everton	33	9	14	10	53	44	+9	41
12	Watford	33	11	8	14	32	37	-5	41
13	AFC Bournemouth	33	11	8	14	40	55	-15	41
14	West Bromwich Albion	33	10	10	13	31	40	-9	40
15	Swansea City	34	10	10	14	34	45	-11	40
16	Crystal Palace	33	10	8	15	35	42	-7	38
17	Norwich City	34	8	7	19	35	60	-25	31
18	Sunderland	33	7	9	17	39	57	-18	30
19	Newcastle United	33	7	7	19	35	61	-26	28
20	Aston Villa	34	3	7	24	23	65	-42	16

Black Cats claw back Canaries in relegation dogfight

For most of the early stages, hosts Norwich were in the ascendancy, but the match would turn itself on its head midway through the first half due to the determination, directness and attacking intent from Sunderland's Italian forward Fabio Borini.

The former Liverpool front man took it upon himself to lead the line and created the game's first real opening of note, crashing a drive narrowly wide of goal following a sumptuous header down from midfielder Jan Kirchhoff.

That move appeared to invigorate the visitors, and it was Borini who finally broke the deadlock in the 41st minute from the penalty spot. Andre Wisdom's clumsy challenge inside the area brought down the striker, who dusted himself off to calmly slot his spot-kick into the bottom-left corner.

Norwich's Nathan Redmond struck the foot of the post with a fine effort from distance following the interval, but Sam Allardyce's side capitalised on some poor defending to double their advantage through Jermain Defoe's 13th league goal of the campaign, per Soccerway.

Surprisingly, a huge majority of those goals for the England international have come away from the Stadium of Light in Sunderland's quest to avoid the drop.

Opta detailed the statistics to Defoe's remarkable run of form on the road:

Defensive playmaker Kirchhoff won possession off Sebastien Bassong in midfield before playing in Borini, who played a low ball into the area for the former Tottenham Hotspur attacker to finish the move emphatically.

Borini took to social media after the game to express his delight at the result: 

Redmond provided Neil's side their best chance of a way back into the game as he kept goalkeeper Vito Mannone on his toes with another fine strike, but it was to be Sunderland's day, as they added to their lead in the 91st minute.

Duncan Watmore put the game beyond any doubt in injury time at the end of the second period. The 22-year-old stuck a smart effort past John Ruddy from an ever-narrowing angle to seal a vital away win. 

The relegation fight bunched up further following Newcastle' stunning victory over Swansea, with the Magpies scoring two late goals to help record an impressive result at St. James' Park. Jamaal Lascelles scored the game's opening goal on 40 minutes before Moussa Sissoko and Andros Townsend both struck inside the final seven minutes.

The result saw Rafael Benitez secure his first win in charge of the north-east side after taking over from Steve McClaren in March. His team are now within one win of 17th-placed Norwich and have a game in hand. 

Meanwhile, it was a dark day at Old Trafford for the top-flight's basement club Aston Villa. The West Midlands side have been relegated from the Premier League for the first time in their history.

After being one of the founding teams in the division's current format back in 1992, Villa have failed to keep pace this term and lost for the ninth consecutive time in the 1-0 defeat to Manchester United.

Elsewhere across England, Everton continued their poor form with a 1-1 draw with Southampton, and Watford beat West Bromwich Albion 1-0 after Baggies striker Saido Berahino missed two penalties.

Aguero hat-trick inspires City

Sergio Aguero continued his rich vein of form at Stamford Bridge on Saturday as he netted three goals to help down champions Chelsea 3-0. 

Blues goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois was also shown a red card to further compound interim manager Guus Hiddink's misery. 

The Argentina international broke the deadlock after 33 minutes in west London before adding his second of the game eight minutes after the interval. With 10 minutes remaining, the in-form striker sealed his third of the match from the penalty spot after Courtois brought down Fernandinho in the box.

His trio of goals sees him join a very exclusive group, as detailed by Opta:

Manuel Pellegrini's City are temporarily up to third as a result, with Arsenal yet to play their fixture at home to Crystal Palace this weekend.

Yaya Toure and Samir Nasri were handed starts following their midweek omissions in the UEFA Champions League, whilst Diego Costa returned for Chelsea following his three-game suspension. The Spaniard was also joined by incoming Gary Cahill, Courtois and Willian.

The game started in a frantic manner, with both sides spurning chances to grab the opening goal. City stopper Joe Hart did well to keep out Pedro and then Ruben Loftus-Cheek as Chelsea began the brighter of the two sides. However, Belgium international Courtois was the first to be beaten as Aguero's 20-yard strike deflected off the leg of Cahill before making its way into the net.

The in-form attacker now has 13 goals in his last 12 top-flight appearances, with Eurosport hailing his most recent achievement: 

Shortly after the interval, the 27-year-old bagged his brace. Kevin De Bruyne was the architect behind the move before Nasri aided the final pass for Aguero to finish with assured composure. The goal appeared to dishearten the hosts, who had performed well after the break. 

His second strike of the game saw Aguero reach a significant individual landmark this term, as detailed by the official Premier League Twitter account:

With time running out for Chelsea to take anything away from the game, their game plan crumbled as the referee gave Courtois his marching orders for a mistimed tackle on Fernandinho. Despite missing against French champions Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, Aguero remained on penalty duties.

This time he made no mistake to slot his effort past stand-in goalkeeper Asmir Begovic to wrap up an important three points in the fight to secure automatic qualification for a place in Europe's premier club competition.