Premier League Results: 2016 EPL Week 38 Scores, Table and Results

Sunderland secured their Premier League status after beating Everton 3-0 at the Stadium of Light on Wednesday, a result that also confirmed relegation for Norwich City and Newcastle United.

The former went down despite doing their part to avoid the drop by beating Watford 4-2 at Carrow Road. But three points in the north-east meant the Black Cats sealed 17th place and Norwich endured an instant return to the Championship.

Meanwhile, Liverpool snatched a point late on in the 1-1 draw with Chelsea at Anfield.

Here are the scores from Wednesday's fixtures: 

Home	Score	Away
Norwich City	4-2	Watford
Sunderland	3-0	Everton
Liverpool	1-1	Chelsea

Here's what those scores mean for the standings ahead of this Sunday's final matchday:

Position	Club	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Goal Difference	Points
1	Leicester City	37	23	11	3	32	80
2	Tottenham Hotspur	37	19	13	5	38	70
3	Arsenal	37	19	11	7	25	68
4	Manchester City	37	19	8	10	30	65
5	Manchester United	37	18	9	10	12	63
6	West Ham United	37	16	14	7	15	62
7	Southampton	37	17	9	11	15	60
8	Liverpool	37	16	11	10	13	59
9	Chelsea	37	12	13	12	6	49
10	Stoke City	37	13	9	15	-15	48
11	Swansea City	37	12	10	15	-10	46
12	Everton	37	10	14	13	1	44
13	Watford	37	12	8	17	-10	44
14	Crystal Palace	37	11	9	17	-9	42
15	West Bromwich Albion	37	10	12	15	-14	42
16	Bournemouth	37	11	9	17	-20	42
17	Sunderland	37	9	11	17	-14	38
18	Newcastle United	37	8	10	19	-25	34
19	Norwich City	37	9	7	21	-25	34
20	Aston Villa	37	3	8	26	-45	17

Recap

Sunderland set a strong early pace against an Everton side seemingly impatient for the official end of the season. The Black Cats pressed high and produced some fierce tackles in midfield.

But the home side needed some set-piece magic from underrated full-back Patrick van Aanholt to earn the breakthrough. The Dutchman lifted in a smart free-kick for the opener.

Despite their annual flirtation with the drop, OptaJoe confirmed how no team in the league can match Sunderland's efficiency in this phase of the game:

The quality strike also maintained Van Aanholt's place as one of his team's most useful attacking outlets, per Squawka:

Despite Van Aanholt's quality, Telegraph Football offered this unflattering comparison of Everton goalkeeper Joel Robles' attempts to keep the ball out:

But Robles couldn't be blamed for the lack of attacking impetus Everton displayed at the other end.

Striker Romelu Lukaku had little service, while playmaker Ross Barkley couldn't escape the congestion in the middle. The result was a dismal forward output from the Toffees at the break, according to Match of the Day:

Either side of the half, Lamine Kone scored twice for the hosts. The bullish centre-back's second set a career landmark, according to Sky Sports Statto:

Another escapology act is fitting for a Sunderland side who found goals and wins when it matters. But this is a team with enough ability to avoid another relegation scrap next season.

The midfield has power and technical quality courtesy of Jan Kirchhoff and Yann M'Vila, while Kone and Van Aanholt are a pair of capable athletes at the back. If manager Sam Allardyce can add another goalscorer, this squad should be a lot more competitive next season.

Sunderland's heroics meant a rare scoring spree from Norwich went wasted. So did a valiant comeback that saw the Canaries overturn a 1-0 deficit when Dieumerci Mbokani and Nathan Redmond cancelled out Troy Deeney's opener.

A Craig Cathcart own goal made it 3-1, before Norwich had to sweat thanks to the end of Odion Ighalo's lengthy goal drought. Squawka had details:

But Mbokani's second put the game out of reach, even if it did nothing for the Canaries' survival bid.

The goals have just come too late for Norwich, who have been overly pragmatic too often this season. Manager Alex Neil has a deep and gifted midfield, but he hasn't really found a way to let the creativity flourish and inspire his attack.

At Anfield, a game with little implications for either Liverpool or Chelsea was at least afforded a thrilling finish when Christian Benteke came off the bench to head in an injury-time equaliser.

The Belgian striker capitalised on a blunder from back-up goalkeeper Asmir Begovic, who failed to claim a cross that should have been his.

Begovic's gaffe wasted a quite magnificent performance from Chelsea winger Eden Hazard, who terrorised Liverpool's defence en route to a wonderful first-half opener.

In the end, Hazard had lit up this end-of-season filler, as numbers from Squawka proved:

Liverpool and Chelsea have both been given reminders about how much work they need to do to get back among the league's challengers next season.

But it's Sunderland who were the big winners on Wednesday. Now the Black Cats can focus on putting themselves in a position to avoid this kind of drama in their next campaign.