Tottenham Hotspur's tenacious chase of leaders Chelsea continued as they claimed a 12th consecutive Premier League home win with a 4-0 rout of Bournemouth on Saturday to cut the gap to four points.
Excerpted from Sahara: The Untold Story by Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The league has ruled out a 'pause' to the season to allow clubs to recover their squads, although the surging Omicron variant has put paid to half of the weekend's fixtures including Manchester United's home game with Brighton & Hove Albion.
Images from Saturday's action in the Premier League.
Images from football matches held across Europe on Saturday
Olivier Giroud's rush of blood almost ruined Arsene Wenger's Christmas on Friday as the France forward's red card left Arsenal sweating towards the end of their 2-1 defeat of Queens Park Rangers.
Images from Sunday's Premier League action.
Carlos Tevez scored late in the match as Manchester United drew 1-1 at Blackburn Rovers. United have 81 points, Chelsea 78 and Arsenal 74 and Liverpool are fourth with 69 points.
Roberto Firmino struck a stoppage-time winner as Liverpool beat Paris St Germain 3-2 at Anfield on Tuesday after Kylian Mbappe looked to have secured a point for the French side in a compelling Champions League Group C clash.
Images from Sunday's English Premier League matches.
Updates from around the different clubs in the English Premier League
Cristiano Ronaldo scored on his return to the starting line-up as Manchester United sealed a place in the Europa League knock-out rounds with a 3-0 victory over Sheriff Tiraspol at Old Trafford on Thursday.
Ronaldo's moments of brilliance, however, are getting ever rarer. Even in the Europa League, where he has started all four matches against mediocre opponents such as Sheriff Tiraspol and Omonia Nicosia, he has only scored once, off a penalty.
Manchester City moved 11 points clear at the top of the English Premier League after a last-gasp goal from Rodri gave them a 2-1 victory at fourth-placed Arsenal on Saturday in a controversy packed game at the Emirates stadium.
Barcelona's Sergi Roberto and Robert Lewandowski struck just before halftime to give the league leaders a 2-0 home win over lowly Cadiz on Sunday in their pursuit of a 27th Spanish title.
Images from the international friendly and Euro qualifying football matches played on Tuesday.
We haven't played the best coming into the tournament. There was a lot of talk and speculation about our form but we showed everyone how much quality we have and what we can do," said Saka, whose last major tournament ended with him missing a penalty in the Euro 2020 final shootout.
A 'winning culture' may be one of the most over used terms in modern football but Real Madrid and Carlo Ancelotti proved on Saturday, at Liverpool's expense, that there truly is meaning and value in the concept.
Football news from Ligue 1, Bundesliga and La liga.
Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer hit back at Frank Lampard after his Chelsea counterpart suggested Video Assistant Referees (VAR) have favoured United his season. Lampard said United benefited from contentious VAR decisions and poor on-pitch decisions, commenting on how a "clear and obvious decision" went their way on Thursday when Crystal Palace's Wilfried Zaha was fouled but no penalty was awarded.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Images from the UEFA Champions League matches played on Tuesday night.
England will head to the World Cup on the back of a six-match winless sequence but with at least some pride and confidence restored after a thrilling 3-3 draw at home to Germany in the Nations League on Monday.
Images from Saturday's action in the Premier League.
Leicester pushed forward after the interval but were caught out on the break in the 64th minute when Ritchie's pass released Wilson who coolly rounded Schmeichel before sliding home.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field.
The United States stormed into the World Cup last 16 on Tuesday by beating Iran 1-0 at a cacophonous Al Thumama Stadium after Christian Pulisic bundled the ball home in a Group B showdown shrouded by decades of enmity between the two nations.
The defeat halted Brighton's impressive three-game winning streak which included a 4-1 win over Chelsea and a 3-1 victory at Arsenal in the League Cup on Wednesday.
World soccer governing body FIFA had said in April that it would be flexible with transfer windows and allow them to be moved "so they fall between the end of the old season and the start of the new season."
Stirling Moss, the British racing driver who ranked as one of the all-time Formula One greats despite never winning the world championship, died on Sunday at the age of 90 after a long illness. News of his passing was mourned across the world of motorsport, with Formula One hailing a 'legend' and 'one of the true greats'.
Manchester City endured some anxious moments but escaped from fourth-tier Newport County with their FA Cup hopes intact as Phil Foden scored twice in an ultimately comfortable 4-1 fifth-round victory on Saturday.
Images from Saturday's action in the English Premier League.
Debutant Owen Hargreaves scored his first goal for more than three years and Mario Balotelli grabbed his first of the season as Manchester City beat holders Birmingham City 2-0 in a League Cup third round tie at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday.
A round-up of the weekend's action from Europe's leading leagues.
Newcastle grabbed a point to leave City manager Pep Guardiola frustrated.
Liverpool scored a stunning 3-2 win over bottom side Queens Park Rangers with four goals coming in a frenzied seven-minute finale at Loftus Road as the drama continued in the Premier League on Sunday.
New Atletico striker Diego Costa, whose transfer from Chelsea was agreed this week, watched on from the stands as both sides hit the woodwork in the opening 20 minutes of an even first period.
Here are five talking points from the weekend's Premier League action:
This time Liverpool are at home, and victory would put them nine points clear.
Images from Tuesday's action in the UEFA Champions League.
