Premier League champions Manchester City stayed two points clear at the top on Sunday with a dominant 3-1 win in the derby against Manchester United.
Liverpool, having beaten bottom club Fulham 2-0 at Anfield, will go into the international break in second place after receiving a favour from neighbours Everton, who held Chelsea to a goalless draw at Stamford Bridge.
Meanwhile Arsenal had to come from behind to extend their unbeaten run to 16 games in all competitions with a 1-1 draw at home to promoted Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Man City moved on to 32 points from 12 games, while Liverpool have 30 and Chelsea 28, with all three teams retaining their season’s unbeaten record in the league.
City were on top from the start against a United team missing the injured Paul Pogba.
David Silva scored the first goal after 12 minutes and Sergio Aguero added a second soon after halftime.
Jose Mourinho’s side barely threatened until substitute Romelu Lukaku came on to win a penalty that Anthony Martial converted just before the hour mark.
But despite City largely controlling the game, it took a late third goal by their substitute Ilkay Gundogan to ensure there could be no repeat of United’s dramatic comeback to win 3-2 in the same fixture last season.
United remain eighth and are 12 points behind the leaders.
There was controversy at Anfield after Liverpool took the lead against struggling Fulham just before halftime.
The London side felt that their Serbian striker Aleksandar Mitrovic should not have been given offside as he headed home and that goalkeeper Alisson took the subsequent free kick when the ball was moving.
Less than 15 seconds later from a lightning Liverpool break, it was in the net at the other end, put there by Mo Salah.
Xherdan Shaqiri scored a fine second goal, after which the heart seemed to go out of a Fulham team who remain bottom of the table with only one win from their 12 games.
“In this country, normally you cannot show disrespect to the referee and this is a problem because it’s shown disrespect to my team, myself and Fulham supporters,” said their manager Slavisa Jokanovic.
Chelsea’s manager Maurizio Sarri set a record in the Premier League era by completing his first dozen games without a defeat, but he would have expected more than a goalless draw from the home game with Everton.
His team failed to score for only the second time in the league this season against a well-organised Everton, who stayed ninth in the table.
“Of course, I prefer the three points today than the record,” he said.
In Sunday’s other game Arsenal fell behind to Wolves with a first half goal by Portuguese international Ivan Cavaleiro and did not equalise until four minutes from time through Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
The draw left Arsenal, fifth on 24 points, three points behind fourth-placed neighbours Tottenham Hotspur, who beat Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino praised “fantastic” defender Juan Foyth after he scored the winning goal against Crystal Palace – a week after conceding two penalties on his Premier League debut.
The 20-year-old Argentine headed in from close range when he reacted quickest after Harry Kane’s header had been partially blocked.
Leicester City shared a 0-0 draw with Burnley at the King Power stadium on Saturday when football was again overshadowed by emotional tributes to the club’s late owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.
Thousands of supporters walked to the stadium from the city centre before the Premier League game, which was preceded by two minutes silence for the Thai billionaire. Vichai died in a helicopter match before City’s last home match two weeks’ ago.
Elsewhere on Saturday Salomon Rondon netted an impressive brace for Newcastle United as they claimed consecutive wins in the Premier League for the first time since April to move a point clear of the bottom three with a 2-1 win over Bournemouth.
Newcastle, full of confidence following their previous victory over Watford, got off to the perfect start when Rondon opened the scoring after just seven minutes following fine build-up work from DeAndre Yedlin.
Bournemouth’s Adam Smith suffered what appeared a serious injury and play had to be suspended for eight minutes while he received treatment before being carried off with suspected knee ligament damage.
Rondon grabbed his second five minutes before the break when he met Kenedy’s cross and directed a powerful header past Asmir Begovic.
Bournemouth refused to lie down and made the most of eight added minutes at the end of the first half when Jefferson Lerma headed home a cross from Ryan Fraser to net his first goal for the club.
Eddie Howe’s side were unfortunate not to come away with a point in the second half as Jordan Ibe fired over when clean through on goal and Dan Gosling’s 84th minute effort was ruled out for offside.
A late strike from Jose Holebas earned Watford a 1-1 draw at a rain-soaked Southampton on Saturday and extended the home side’s winless run to eight Premier games while increasing the pressure on manager Mark Hughes.
Manolo Gabbiadini gave the Saints the lead with a smart turn and finish in the 20th minute, profiting from good work by Danny Ings, who picked Roberto Pereyra’s pocket inside the penalty area and played in his fellow striker following a corner.
The goal was the Italian’s first of the season but Holebas equalised in the 82nd to deny the Saints a much-needed victory and leave them one place above the relegation zone by virtue of goal difference ahead of the international break.
The ball broke to Watford’s Greek defender just outside the Southampton area after bouncing off Gerard Deulofeu and he advanced into the box before unleashing a left-foot strike that took a deflection before flying past keeper Alex McCarthy.
Watford also had a reasonable penalty appeal turned down by referee Simon Hooper just before the hour when Nathaniel Chalobah went down in the box, while at the other end substitute Charlie Austin had a goal controversially ruled out for offside.
The draw lifted Watford into provisional seventh place with 20 points from 12 games above Manchester United, who face Manchester City in Sunday’s derby clash, on goal difference while Southampton have eight points.
Huddersfield Town meanwhile missed a chance to climb out of the Premier League relegation zone when they were held to a 1-1 home draw by West Ham United in an entertaining clash.
The result left Huddersfield in 19th position on seven points from 12 games, one behind Cardiff City and 17th-placed Crystal Palace, who were at home to Tottenham Hotspur in the day’s 1730 GMT fixture.
Alex Pritchard gave Huddersfield a sixth-minute lead with a scuffed shot from 16 metres which somehow trickled past West Ham keeper Lukasz Fabianski before Felipe Anderson levelled with an opportunist 74th-minute goal.
The match got off to a flying start as Fabianski kept out a Steve Mounie header and Marko Arnautovic missed a gilt-edged chance at the other end before Pritchard took advantage of a defensive error to delight the home fans.
West Ham were fortunate not to fall two goals behind in the first half as Philip Billing’s swerving cross-turned-shot came off the inside of the post and Mounie forced another good save from the busy Fabianski.
West Ham dominated after the break and almost turned the match on its head after the equaliser, when Issa Diop saw his thumping header cleared off the line by Aaron Mooy.
