The English Premier League (EPL) returned back to action this Saturday after taking time off for a week of Euro 2014 qualifiers with defending champions Manchester City trying to keep pace with league leader Chelsea in the standings while Arsenal struggled against Hull City, needing Danny Welback to bail them out late in the game.

With Diego Costa sitting out after suffering an injury during Portugal's Euro 2016 qualifiers, Chelsea defeated Crystal Palace 2-1 Saturday afternoon.

Oscar opened the scoring for "The Blues" off a gorgeous free kick in the 25th minute he blasted past Crystal Palace keeper Julian Speroni to take the early lead in the match. Oscar would later assist Cesc Fabregas, who scored his first EPL goal of the season, and first since when the Spaniard played for Arsenal in 2010, to put them up 2-0.

Crystal Palace had a man-advantage after César Azpilicueta of Chelsea slid hard, cleats up, into Mile Jedinak, giving the referee no choice but tossing Azpilicueta from the game, handing him a red card in the 40th minute. But Crystal Palace gave the advantage away after Damien Delaney earned his second yellow card of the half in the three minutes later in the match. Crystal Palace's Fraizer Campbell would score in the 90th minute but it was too little, too late as Chelsea would hold on for the victory.

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Sergio Aguero carried Manchester City on Saturday scoring all of goals for the EPL defending champions in their 4-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur. Aguero opened the scoring in the 13th minute after Frank Lampard stole the ball from Tottenham and passed the ball to the Aguero, who patiently waited in the box before rocketing it past Spurs' keeper Hugo Lloris.

Aguero would score two more goals off penalty shots (one in the 20th minute, the other in the 60th minute) before Tottenham lost defender Federico Fazio in the 67th minute and Aguero ended the day by blowing past Tottenham defender Jan Vertonghen, getting his fourth goal past Lloris in the 75th minute, ending the day tied with Diego Costa for the EPL scoring title with nine goals on the season.

"It's a very good victory for us," said Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini. "It's always difficult to come back from the international break."

Manchester City vs Tottenham

Arsensal struck first in their game against Hull City after Alexis Sanchez scored in the 13th minute but Hull struck back after Mohamed Diamé equalized the game just four minutes later. Hull's Abel Hernandez headed Tom Huddlestone cross putting the ball past Arsenal keeper Wojciech Szczesny in the 46th minute of the match to take 2-1 lead over Arsenal in the second half.

But Danny Welback, with an assist from Sanchez, would manage to salvage a point for Arsenal shooting the ball past Hull back-up keeper Eldin Jakupovic, who replaced Steven Harper prior to the end of the first half after suffering a muscle injury in his left arm, in the first minute of stoppage time in the second half of the match to end the game in a 2-2 draw.

"We deserved maybe to hang on but a lot of them have been all over the world this week and we were running on empty," said Hull City coach Steve Bruce after the game.

Arsenal vs Hull City

Results from the rest of Saturday's EPL games:
Burnley 1 - West Ham 3
Everton 3 - Aston Villa 0
Newcastle 1 - Leicester 0
Southampton 8 - Sunderland 0

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