Images from Sunday's action in the Premier League.
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 English Premier League with a 2-1 win in an incident-packed game at Aston Villa on Saturday.
Arsenal moved up to second in the Premier League and within six points of Liverpool after a largely trouble-free, if slightly pedestrian, 1-0 win at home to struggling Ipswich Town on a chilly night in north London on Friday.
Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City set up a Champions League showdown for next Wednesday when they both won on Saturday to knock Aston Villa out of the race and leave Liverpool hopes of fourth place hanging by a thread.
Southampton's Senegal forward Sadio Mane scored the fastest Premier League hat-trick as he broke a 20-year-old record to help them lead 5-1 at home to Aston Villa by halftime on Saturday.
Joleon Lescott's 62nd-minute goal and a brilliant late save by goalkeeper Joe Hart sent Manchester City back to the top of the Premier League with a tense 1-0 win at Aston Villa Sunday.
Manchester United's Mexican striker Javier Hernandez could be out for four weeks with torn ligaments, manager Alex Ferguson said after the Premier League champions' 1-0 win at Aston Villa on Saturday.
IMAGES from the UEFA Champions League matches played on Wednesday
Crystal Palace's Wilfried Zaha has been subjected to racist abuse on social media and the forward shared screenshots ahead of Sunday's Premier League game at Aston Villa. The Ivory Coast international tweeted images of the messages he received from an individual on Saturday, which included one of members of the white supremacist organisation the Ku Klux Klan.
Aston Villa secured their place in Europe next season and Hull City remained dangerously close to the relegation zone after John Carew gave the Midlanders a 1-0 Premier League victory Monday.
Preview and timings of the Premier League matches this weekend
A summary of Sunday's action in the Premier League.
A banner calling for the dismissal of beleaguered Manchester United manager David Moyes was flown over Old Trafford on Saturday as his side's Premier League match with Aston Villa kicked-off.
Manchester United sacked manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on Sunday, a day after a 4-1 defeat by promoted Watford left the Old Trafford club seventh in the Premier League.
Chelsea's third successive league win lifted them level on 18 points with Leicester City but are top thanks to a better goal difference. Leicester face Liverpool on Sunday.
Champions Liverpool were ripped apart 7-2 at Aston Villa and Manchester United were humiliated 6-1 at home by Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday in one of the most astonishing days of Premier League results.
Cristiano Ronaldo made a disappointingly low-key home debut for Real Madrid against Saudi Arabian club Al Ittihad in their Peace Cup match at the Bernabeu on Sunday.
"I think he plays on Wednesday because on Saturday it was a decision to protect him," manager Jose Mourinho told the club website (www.chelseafc.com).
Manchester United will travel to third-tier MK Dons in the Capital One Cup second round following the draw on Wednesday, the first time they have been involved at this stage of the competition for 19 years.
Arsenal visit Liverpool looking for a first league win at Anfield since 2003. Defeat for Arsene Wenger's side will move seventh-placed Liverpool within a point of them, having played a game more.
A round-up of Saturday's action in the Premier League.
Peter Crouch grabbed a late equaliser to earn Liverpool a 2-2 draw with Aston Villa in the English Premier League.
The schedule of matches in the English Premier League between Saturday, September 26 and Monday, September 28.
Manchester United should sack Louis Van Gaal and install his assistant Ryan Giggs as manager, according to former striker Dwight Yorke who wants to launch his own managerial career at struggling Aston Villa. The former Trinidad and Tobago striker said changes were needed at United, with the 20-times English champions sixth in the Premier League, out of the Champions League and suffering a 2-0 loss to arch-rivals Liverpool in the Europa League this week. "At the end of the day, it's all about results," Yorke was quoted as saying by Singaporean daily The New Paper on Saturday after a promotional event in the Southeast Asian citystate. "In the two years that he's (Van Gaal) been there, he's spent tons of money, brought in tons of players, and simply hasn't got the results that he and everyone else had hoped to. "You see a lot of young managers, Zinedine Zidane's been given the opportunity at Real Madrid, you got Luis Enrique at Barcelona, Pep Guardiola who's coming to Manchester City, Tottenham's Mauricio Pochettino, they're all ex-players. "And I feel that the game is going down that road, and maybe this is the right time to give Giggsy the job." Yorke won three Premier League titles and the 1999 Champions League with United under former manager Alex Ferguson after joining from Aston Villa.
Arsenal beat Brighton and Hove Albion 3-2 to reach the FA Cup fifth round.
England striker Danny Welbeck made the most of a rare start for Manchester United with a first-half double in a 3-0 win at Aston Villa on Sunday as the champions ended a run of four Premier League games without victory.
The battle for Champions League qualification continues with fourth-placed Aston Villa away to Luton Town on Saturday and Tottenham Hotspur, who are five points behind with a game in hand, hosting Crystal Palace.
Theo Walcott and Nicklas Bendtner made goalscoring returns from injury on Wednesday as Arsenal thrashed Newcastle United 4-0 away to reach the last eight of the League Cup.
Martin O'Neill has always been a man who put principle before profit so it is probably safe to assume that he did not walk out on Aston Villa five days before the start of the season because he was not offered a pay rise.
A cruel own goal by Damien Duff condemned Newcastle United to relegation from the Premier League after they slipped to a 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa on Sunday.
Daniel Sturridge's return from injury to the starting line-up is a massive bonus and will bring the 'fear factor' back to Liverpool, captain Jordan Henderson has said.
The Football Association has rejected appeals by Chelsea left back Ashley Cole and Aston Villa defender Zat Knight for wrongful dismissal in the 4-4 draw between the teams in the Premier League on Wednesday.
Alex Ferguson may have been stripped of his Manchester United ambassadorial role last week but his legacy as manager remains a stifling cloud for those following in his footsteps, with Erik ten Hag the latest to be jettisoned after failing to measure up.
Holders Chelsea beat Aston Villa 3-0 to sweep into the FA Cup final for the third time in four seasons on Saturday and keep alive their dream of a first FA Cup and League double. All three goals came late in the game with Didier Drogba breaking Villa's resistance after 67 minutes before Florent Malouda (89th) and Frank Lampard, deep in stoppage time, gave Chelsea an ultimately comfortable victory.
Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson dismissed Chelsea's Premier League title hopes on Wednesday.
Manchester United enjoyed a hugely satisfying Saturday, beating Everton 1-0 to go five points clear in the Premier League after challengers Arsenal and Aston Villa were held to home draws. Cristiano Ronaldo's 44th-minute penalty at Old Trafford was enough to give the champions 53 points from 23 matches.
Manchester City were confirmed as English Premier League champions for the fifth time in six seasons on Saturday without even having to kick a ball.
Hamburg led a trio of former European champions into the UEFA Cup knockout phase on Thursday and previous winners Valencia also secured a last 32 place. Aston Villa and Ajax Amsterdam progressed from Group F along with Hamburg, whose 2-0 victory at Slavia Prague meant Villa qualified despite a 2-1 home defeat by Slovakia's Zilina.
