Jose Mourinho believes football is only about winning and that managers who favour a possession-dominated beautiful game and neglect steely defence and lethal counter-attacking are "stupid".
Chelsea sacked manager Carlo Ancelotti on Sunday after a season in which they failed to win a trophy but just a year after the Italian led them to the double.
EPL was suspended on March 13 due to the pandemic, with teams returning to training in small groups before voting last week to return to contact training.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored an 88th-minute penalty to give Manchester United a 2-1 victory over Everton at Old Trafford on Sunday that kept them within a point of Premier League leaders Arsenal.
Tottenham Hotspur have shown impressive durability in the Premier League lately, but they will need to be at their most steadfast to deny champions and league leaders Manchester City who travel to Wembley on Monday.
Everton midfielder Marouane Fellaini has been sidelined for three weeks with a knee injury and will miss Belgium's World Cup qualifiers against Serbia and Scotland.
A defiant David Moyes remained hopeful of keeping champions Manchester United in the Premier League title race despite seeing his team lose 1-0 to Newcastle United on Saturday, their second home defeat in four days.
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Leicester beat Southampton to open seven-point gap at the top.
Joint-leaders Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool both dropped points on a busy day of English Premier League action as Leicester City and Southampton narrowed the gap in what is shaping up to be one of the most open title races for years.
A rejuvenated Manchester United claimed a sixth win from six matches since former striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer stepped in following the sacking of Jose Mourinho.
Manchester United stretched their unbeaten run to 11 games in all competitions after Daley Blind, in-form striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic and substitute Henrik Mkhitaryan gave them a 3-1 home win over Sunderland on Monday. Left back Blind fired United ahead with a crisp 39th-minute shot after Ibrahimovic teed him up perfectly. The towering Swede doubled the lead with a clinical 82nd-minute finish for his 17th goal of the season. Fit-again Mkhitaryan put the icing on the cake with a spectacular backheel effort after a sharp Ibrahimovic cross from the right, although television replays suggested the Armenian was marginally offside. Striker Fabio Borini gave Sunderland fans something to cheer with a dipping late volley.
Chelsea, galvanised by the second-half introduction of Fernando Torres, capped a successful week by coming from behind to beat Sunderland 2-1 to leapfrog Tottenham Hotspur into third place in the Premier League on Sunday.
More than 30 supporters were arrested in violent clashes that followed a tense cup match between Everton and Manchester United.
Manchester City went top of the Premier League, at least until Manchester United play at Stoke City later on Saturday, when they beat Everton 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium with goals from second-half substitutes Mario Balotelli and James Milner.
Wayne Rooney scored two spectacular goals as holders Manchester United reached the FA Cup fifth round with a classy 3-0 win over Middlesbrough.
Two goals from Wayne Rooney gave Manchester United a 2-1 win at Tottenham Hotspur and denied Chelsea the chance to be crowned Premier League champions again on Monday.
On Sunday the Ukrainian Tennis Federation urged the sport's governing body the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to immediately expel Russia and Belarus from the organisation and ban Russia from team and individual tournaments. Also, athletes from Ukraine and other nations have called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to suspend Russia and Belarus and ban their athletes from events immediately.
British media reported that the fee for the 24-year-old would be around 75 million pounds ($96.68 million), making him the club's second most expensive signing after last year's world record deal for French midfielder Paul Pogba.
English Premier League champions Manchester City will kick off their title defence at home to promoted Southampton on August 18 before facing Liverpool at Anfield the following weekend.
Images from the English Premier League matches played across England on Wednesday.
Wayne Rooney proved he was worth his weight in gold to Manchester United with a man of the match performance in a 2-0 win at Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Saturday.
Images from the English Premier League matches played on Saturday.
An injury-hit Newcastle United stunned Tottenham Hotspur with a 3-2 victory in the EPL.
Chelsea have told Frank Lampard's agent that the England midfielder will not be offered a new contract with the European champions at the end of the English Premier League season.
Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech has made a surprise return to Chelsea's training ground ahead of Sunday's big London derby after Adidas sent a consignment of gloves to his former club by mistake. Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink, whose misfiring champions travel to Cech's Premier League leaders on Sunday, made light of the situation at a news conference on Friday. "I was here when Petr showed up. It was nice to see him," the Dutchman told reporters at the Cobham facility to the south-west of London. "We had a chat here. Almost everyone was gone already, it was late afternoon....we tried to hide them, which he did not accept. Also we tried to make them a little bit slippery but he discovered that also. "They were wrongly sent here and we gave them back. It was nice. That's the story."
Images from the EPL matches played across England on Sunday.
Belgium soccer player Romelu Lukaku, who is close to joining English Premier League club Manchester United, was arrested in southern California and issued a citation after failing to heed noise warnings, Beverly Hills police said on Saturday.
Ousmane Dembele struck early and Lionel Messi converted a late penalty as Barcelona won 2-0 at Juventus in the Champions League on Wednesday after Alvaro Morata had three goals disallowed for offside for the Serie A side.
Virgil van Dijk made a dream start to his Anfield career, scoring the winning goal on his debut for Liverpool, as they beat city rivals Everton 2-1 in a pulsating FA Cup third round tie on Friday.
Manchester City rediscovered their swagger to beat Chelsea 2-0 and move into the quarter-finals of the FA Cup on Saturday, Manuel Pellegrini winning the battle of tactical wits against Jose Mourinho.
Arsenal went down 1-0 at Manchester City and are still looking for their first win after two matches.
Manchester United beat Bolton Wanderers 2-1 to go three points clear in the premier league.
Premier League heavyweights Liverpool and Manchester United were caught by late sucker punches in two games that finished far more dramatically than they began on Sunday.
Arsenal bounced back from their shock defeat by Birmingham City in the League Cup final when Denmark striker Nicklas Bendtner scored a hat-trick in a 5-0 demolition of Leyton Orient in the FA Cup on Wednesday.
It was short and sweet but the five minutes that Manchester United manager David Moyes spent in his weekly news conference on Friday offered the clearest sign yet that he is settling into the job.
Dutchman Ronald Koeman has signed a two-year-deal with Barcelona.
Rooney's 50th, 150th and 200th EPL goals have all come against Manchester City.
Manchester United have been rejuvenated under new manager Jose Mourinho and are poised to mount a strong challenge for the Premier League title, skipper Wayne Rooney has said. The 30-year-old forward, who secured his fifth league title with the club the last time they won it in 2013, scored eight top flight goals last season as United finished fifth and failed to qualify for the Champions League.
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