Chelsea were declared the “autumn champions” by coach Jose Mourinho as they maintained their unbeaten start to the season with a 2-1 win at Anfield yesterday that kept them four points clear of Southampton at the top of the Premier League.

Southampton won 2-0 at home to Leicester City and there was also a tight victory for Manchester United.

What Mourinho really wants is for Chelsea to be crowned champions in May but for the moment he is settling for his self-appointed award after Chelsea’s come-from-behind win thanks to goals from Gary Cahill and Diego Costa.

“I think we have a very good chance to win the title but I think we, Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United and Southampton are all still in the race. All we can say is that we are the champions of the autumn,” he said.

Although he does not think Chelsea can emulate Arsenal’s achievement of 2003-04 by remaining unbeaten for the whole season, he was delighted after his team took the three points back to west London.

“Unbeaten through the season is the impossible job, I think we will lose eventually,” he said.

Chelsea moved on to 29 points from their opening unbeaten 11 games, four ahead of Southampton who made it 11 wins out of 12 in all competitions after Shane Long came on as a 67th-minute substitute and scored with a left-foot shot on 75 minutes and a right-foot effort five minutes later.

Champions Manchester City’s poor run continued when they twice came from behind at QPR to draw 2-2 thanks to two goals from Sergio Aguero who took his league tally to 12 for the season.

Charlie Austin had two efforts disallowed early on before putting QPR ahead in the 21st minute. Aguero made it 1-1 11 minutes later before QPR went back in front after 76 minutes when Martin Demichelis headed into his own net.

Aguero saved City’s blushes with a well worked equaliser seven minutes from the end but City have now only won once in their last six matches in all competitions.

The result meant City dropped two more points behind leaders Chelsea on 21 points, while QPR stayed 19th with eight points.

Elsewhere, goals were in short supply as United ended a three-match run without a win by beating Crystal Palace 1-0 at Old Trafford with an effort from Juan Mata.

The goal was somewhat fortuitous as Palace keeper Julian Speroni, who had an otherwise sound game, allowed Mata’s long-range shot to slip through his hands.

Burnley also scored a 1-0 win at home, with a header from Ashley Barnes after 50 minutes at Turf Moor enough to give them the three points against Hull City and their first league win since being promoted back to the Premier League at the end of last season.

Hull only had 10 men for the final 20 minutes after their captain Curtis Davies went off with an injury when his side had already made three substitutions.

West Ham United moved up to fourth in the table, at least until Swansea City and Arsenal play each other today, after a 0-0 draw at Upton Park with Aston Villa, whose run of six successive defeats came to an end.

Although West Ham did not score, they welcomed back England striker Andy Carroll for his first appearance of the season since recovering from an ankle injury. He went close to scoring twice in the few minutes he was on the field.

The most exciting match of the afternoon came in the lunchtime kick-off at Anfield where Emre Can scored his first goal for Liverpool with a long-range shot after nine minutes which took a deflection off Cahill’s shoulder and left Chelsea keeper Thibaut Courtois stranded.

Cahill pulled Chelsea level after 14 minutes – awarded after the Goal Decision System proved the ball had crossed the line even though the defender’s shot was smothered by keeper Simon Mignolet.

Costa settled the points in the 67th minute when he put Chelsea ahead with a low, powerful drive, but Liverpool thought they should have had a penalty in the 88th minute when Cahill appeared to handle a Steven Gerrard shot.

Their strong claims were denied, though, as they had to contemplate a third defeat in a week.

Results and standings

Premier League

Burnley 1
Barnes 50;
Hull City 0

HT: 0-0. Att: 16,998,

Liverpool 1
Can 9;
Chelsea 2
Cahill 14; Costa 67;

HT: 1-1. Att: 44,698.

Man. United 1
Mata 67;
Crystal Palace 0

HT: 0-0. Att: 75,325.

QPR 2
Austin 21; Demichelis 76og;
Man. City 2
Aguero 32, 83;

HT: 1-1. Att: 18,005.

Southampton 2
Long 76, 80;
Leicester City 0

HT: 0-0. Att: 31,297.

West Ham 0
Aston Villa 0

Att: 34,857.

	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
Chelsea	11	9	2	0	28	11	29
S’thampton	11	8	1	2	23	5	25
Man. City	11	6	3	2	22	12	21
West Ham	11	5	3	3	19	14	18
Arsenal	10	4	5	1	18	11	17
Man. United	11	4	4	3	17	14	16
Swansea	10	4	3	3	13	10	15
Liverpool	11	4	2	5	14	15	14
Tottenham	10	4	2	4	13	14	14
Everton	10	3	4	3	19	17	13
West Brom	10	3	4	3	13	13	13
Newcastle	10	3	4	3	11	15	13
Stoke City	10	3	3	4	10	12	12
Hull City	11	2	5	4	13	15	11
Sunderland	10	2	5	3	11	18	11
Aston Villa	11	3	2	6	5	16	11
C. Palace	11	2	3	6	14	20	9
Leicester	11	2	3	6	11	18	9
QPR	11	2	2	7	11	22	8
Burnley	11	1	4	6	6	19	7

Playing today
Sunderland vs Everton - 14.30
Swansea vs Arsenal - 17.00
Tottenham vs Stoke - 14.30
WBA vs Newcastle - 14.30

Next fixtures

Saturday, Nov. 22: 16.00 Chelsea vs West Brom; Everton vs West Ham; Leicester vs Sunderland; Man. City vs Swansea; Newcastle vs QPR; Stoke City vs Burnley. 18.30 Arsenal vs Man. United.

Sunday, Nov. 23: 14.30 Crystal Palace vs Liverpool. 17.00 Hull City vs Tottenham.

Monday, Nov. 24: 21.00 Aston Villa vs Southampton.

Top scorers
12 goals: Aguero (Man. City).
10 goals: Costa (Chelsea).
7 goals: Berahino (West Brom), Sanchez (Arsenal).
6 goals: Pelle (Southampton), Sakho (West Ham), Austin (QPR).
5 goals: Ulloa (Leicester City), Chadli (Tottenham).

The Championship
Birmingham 0 - Cardiff City 0
Brighton 1 - Blackburn 1
Derby County 5 - Wolves 0
Fulham 3 - Huddersfield 1
Ipswich Town 1 - Watford 0
Leeds United 3 - Blackpool 1
Middlesbro 0 - Bournemouth 0
Millwall 2 - Brentford 3
Nottm Forest 2 - Norwich City 1
Reading 0 - Charlton 1
Sheff. Wed. 0 - Rotherham 0

Standings: Derby 32; Bournemouth, M’boro 31; Ipswich 30; Watford 29; Brentford 28; Blackburn, Charlton, Wolves 27; Norwich 26; N. Forest 25; Cardiff 23; Sheff. W., Reading 21; Leeds, Huddersfield 20; Fulham 19; Millwall, Rotherham 18; Brighton, Bolton 17; Wigan, Birmingham 16; Blackpool 7.