Frank Lampard broke Chelsea's all-time scoring record with two goals as the European champions all but secured a top-four finish in the Premier League with a 2-1 win in an incident-packed game at Aston Villa on Saturday.
Chelsea's title hopes suffered a blow when the Premier League leaders finished with nine men in a 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa on Saturday after Manchester City won 2-0 at Hull City to cut the gap at the top to six points.
Chelsea's hopes of winning a third consecutive Premier League title have taken a knock with a third straight draw, their first match this season without scoring.
Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal progressed to the FA Cup quarter-finals after victories over Newcastle United, Wrexham and Mansfield Town respectively on Saturday.
Chelsea, playing with a swagger missing for much of the season, routed Aston Villa 8-0 on Sunday as Premier League leaders Manchester United wasted the chance to move six points clear after a 1-1 draw at Swansea City.
Manchester City defeated Brentford 3-0, closing the gap on Premier League leaders Arsenal. Liverpool drew with Chelsea, while other key Premier League results impacted European qualification hopes.
A summary of Saturday's action in the Premier League.
Chelsea scored twice in the last two minutes in a stunning comeback against Aston Villa on Sunday only to concede an injury-time equaliser in a 3-3 draw that severely dents their hopes of retaining the Premier League title.
Chelsea battled from two goals down to beat West Ham 3-2 in the Premier League on Saturday with a stoppage-time Enzo Fernandez winner.
Timo Werner scored his first goal of the season as a much-changed Chelsea side crept into the fourth round of the League Cup by beating Aston Villa 4-3 on penalties after the Stamford Bridge clash ended 1-1 on Wednesday.
Holders Chelsea advanced to the semi-finals of the FA Cup with a 2-0 home win over Stoke City while Aston Villa joined them after coming from 2-0 down to win 4-2 at Reading with a John Carew hat-trick on Sunday.
Chelsea's on-loan Brazilian international Alexandre Pato scored on his debut to help push pathetic Aston Villa to the verge of inevitable relegation with a seventh successive Premier League defeat on Saturday. Pato, the former Milan starlet who has been kicking his heels since joining from Corinthians two months ago, came on as a 25th-minute substitute and was immediately involved in the move which led to Ruben Loftus-Cheek netting his first league goal.
Defender Filipe Luis has rejoined Atletico Madrid from Chelsea in a reported 16 million euro ($17.66 million) deal, the Spanish club said.
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who is on a two-day visit to Mumbai, was joined by English football great Michael Owen.
Noah Okafor scored twice as Leeds United secured a 2-1 away win against Manchester United, who had Lisandro Martinez sent off.
Reading enjoyed a memorable first taste of the top flight when they beat Middlesbrough 3-2.
Chelsea rode their luck to emerge with a second win in as many English Premier League games on Wednesday after Branislav Ivanovic escaped a red card and then his marker to head them to a 2-1 win over Aston Villa.
Arsenal moved nine points clear in the Premier League after beating Everton 2-0 as 16-year-old Max Dowman became the youngest scorer in league history, while Manchester City dropped points at West Ham.
The race for Premier League places in next season's Europa League warmed up on Sunday when Aston Villa and Everton fought out a thrilling 3-3 draw and Fulham came from behind to win 3-1 at Manchester City.
Ivan Toney, once Brentford's lynchpin in attack, has moved to Al-Ahli for 40 million pounds ($52.50 million).
Premier League leaders Arsenal ended their mini-slump with an emphatic 4-0 victory at Leeds United on Saturday to move seven points clear despite Bukayo Saka being ruled out through injury just before kickoff.
Premier League leaders Arsenal needed two own goals, the second deep in stoppage time, to scrape a 2-1 home win over bottom club Wolverhampton Wanderers and open a five-point gap, while earlier on Saturday Mohamed Salah put aside a tumultuous week to help Liverpool beat Brighton and Hove Albion 2-0.
Manchester United languish 14th in the standings on 19 points, their worst placing to end a calendar year since they were 15th in 1989.
A round-up of Tuesday's action in the Premier League.
The central defender has been without a club since leaving Championship (second-tier) side Aston Villa following their playoff defeat by Fulham at Wembley Stadium last season.
Tottenham were booed off at the final whistle as defeat left them in fifth place
Chelsea wrapped up their sixth consecutive Women's Super League title and record-extending eighth in total after a 1-0 victory at Manchester United on Wednesday, with Lucy Bronze heading home a corner late in the game.
Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United both sealed comeback victories to boost their European qualification hopes.
Newcastle United registered a 2-0 home win over Chelsea on Sunday that moves the Magpies a step closer to Champions League football next season.
Manchester City clinched a 1-0 victory at Tottenham Hotspur, while Chelsea were held to a 0-0 draw at home by Aston Villa.
A summary of Saturday's action in the English Premier League.
The win moved Liverpool level with City on 86 points in the standings
IMAGES from the Premier League matches played on Saturday.
Winning back-to-back titles for the first time since 1984 is likely to prove a rather more arduous challenge for Liverpool.
Manchester United take on Everton at home in the last match of Saturday's programme.
Aston Villa took full advantage of the absence of the other Premier League high-fliers on Saturday, winning 1-0 at West Ham United to climb to third. A deflected James Milner shot 12 minutes from time gave Villa 34 points from 18 games and pushed them above Manchester United (32).
Images from Saturday's action in the Premier League.
IMAGES from the Premier League matches played across England, on Sunday.
Leicester City's Jamie Vardy ended his long scoring drought with two goals after coming off the bench as they returned to winning ways with a 4-0 drubbing of Premier League strugglers Aston Villa at the King Power Stadium on Monday.
