The home side beat ATK Mohun Bagan by a solitary goal, with striker Wilmar Jordan the man to put them in front in the 69th minute, before they kept their discipline at the back to seal the result
The Mariners, who are four points behind Mumbai City FC, who play earlier in the evening, are attempting to close the gap to the top spot, while the Highlanders are expecting to have a better second half of the season.
Edu Bedia strike helped the Gaurs register their sixth victory of the season against NorthEast United, thereby taking them to fifth place in the standings with 18 points.
Riding on Abdenasser El Khayati's sensational hat-trick and Petar Sliskovic's two goals, Chennaiyin beat NorthEast United FC 7-3 quite comprehensively last week.
Taking over as head coach of NorthEast United FC for the second time, Vincenzo Annese made five adjustments to the starting lineup from the 7-3 defeat to Chennaiyin FC last week. This time, NorthEast United FC didn't take a risky strategy, but it didn't significantly affect the result.
Midfielder Abdenasser El Khayati pulled all the strings for the Marina Machans, bagging a hat-trick and two assists, to set a new Hero ISL record for most goal contributions in a match.
The recent head-to-head record favours Chennaiyin greatly as they are unbeaten against the NorthEast United FC in the last three seasons, having secured three wins from six games.
The narrow win kept Odisha FC's 100 per cent record at home intact and helped them leapfrog Hyderabad FC and move into second place, three points behind leaders Mumbai City FC with a game in hand. NorthEast United FC remained at the foot of the table, still waiting to get off the mark.
In the 78th minute, Jerry Mawihmingthanga scored Odisha FC's 99th ISL goal to move the Juggernauts into the second position. Pedro Martin was benched in favour of Diego Mauricio, and the hosts only made one other alteration to their starting eleven.
Odisha FC has been irrepressible in the last two games emerging as the comeback masters. The Juggernauts left it late against Chennaiyin FC as they snatched all three points with a 95th-minute winner. In the game before that, they came from two goals down to win 4-2 against East Bengal FC. N