Such is the level of consistency of Manchester City (nine straight wins) and Liverpool (five straight victories), that it can be easy to lose sight of just how good this title race is.
Rewind five years and Liverpool hosted Chelsea with three games remaining, knowing victory would have left them six points clear and a first league title since 1990 almost secure.
Liverpool have enough quality and strength in depth in the squad to win games and pick up important points during a demanding festive schedule, striker Christian Benteke has said.
Liverpool and champions Manchester City drew 0-0 at Anfield while Chelsea and Arsenal enjoyed comfortable away wins. City are top on goal difference from Liverpool and Chelsea with Arsenal two points behind.
Paris St Germain buried the ghosts of their embarrassing 2017 exit as they drew 1-1 at home with Barcelona on Wednesday to complete a 5-2 aggregate victory that sent them into the Champions League quarter-finals.
Barcelona will meet Manchester United in the Champions League quarter-finals following the draw on Friday while Manchester City face Tottenham Hotspur in an all-Premier League clash.
The three Premier League and three La Liga clubs in the last eight avoided each other, with Manchester City up against Atletico Madrid and Liverpool to face Portuguese side Benfica.
Sergio Aguero's hat-trick led Manchester City to a 3-1 win over Arsenal on Sunday and back into second place in the English Premier League, two points behind leaders Liverpool.
Liverpool's Sadio Mane marked his return from injury with a late goal to break Norwich City's resistance and secure a 1-0 win on Saturday to extend his side's Premier League lead to 25 points.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger spoke last week of his desire to keep the 24-year-old Oxlade-Chamberlain, who was also a target for champions Chelsea.
Premier League champions Chelsea eased past a disappointing Everton with goals from Spaniards Cesc Fabregas and Alvaro Morata sealing a 2-0 victory on Sunday.
On a seismic day in the history of Chelsea, Romelu Lukaku scored the winning goal in a 3-2 FA Cup fifth-round victory
Liverpool scored three goals in 12 dramatic first-half minutes, two of them from Emre Can, on their way to a hugely entertaining 4-2 win over Hoffenheim which took them back to the Champions League group stage after a two-season absence on Wednesday.
Striker Robert Lewandowski scored a second-half hat-trick as Borussia Dortmund reclaimed top spot in the Bundesliga with an awe-inspiring 6-1 demolition of VfB Stuttgart on Friday.
The next man in charge faces an unenviable task trying to sort out the existing mess and then living up to goals that seem ever more distant.
In a gripping title race, Liverpool showed they are ready to push Manchester City right until the final seconds of this season with their spirited 3-2 win at Newcastle United.
This and more from the happenings in the world of football
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Sunday
Arsenal's victory was scrappy and nervy but Laurent Koscielny's 72nd-minute winner was enough to move them two points clear at the summit after LeicesterCity's surprise push faltered with a goalless draw at home to 10-man Bournemouth.
Photos from the English Premier League matches played on Sunday
Hazard extra-time goal sends 10-man Real Madrid through to Copa del Rey final.
Images from Wednesday's action in the UEFA Champions League.
Chelsea ticked off three more points in their Premier League title quest with a 2-1 victory over Manchester City on Wednesday but Tottenham Hotspur's Houdini-like 3-1 win at Swansea means the race is far from over.
Playing without crowd will be peculiar: Suarez
Images from Saturday's action in the English Premier League.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Holders Real Madrid chased away some of their early-season blues when Gareth Bale scored the pick of the goals in a 5-1 rout of FC Basel in their Champions League Group B opener on Tuesday.
Chelsea moved 12 points clear of Arsenal, who suffered their fourth defeat in nine league matches, while fourth-placed Liverpool fell 13 point adrift after their wretched 2017 continued with a shock 2-0 defeat at resurgent Hull City.
Images from Saturday's action in the Premier League.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Paris St Germain revived their Champions League campaign with a 2-1 win over Liverpool in Group C on Wednesday, leaving the English club's hopes of reaching the last 16 hanging in the balance.
IMAGES from the English Premier League matches played on Wednesday
Images from Saturday's action in the Premier League.
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.
A round-up of Saturday's action in the Premier League.
An impudent individual goal from Philippe Coutinho steered Liverpool comfortably into the quarter-finals of the Europa League on Thursday after a 1-1 draw at bitter rivals Manchester United completed a 3-1 aggregate win.
Wednesday night saw a few surprise results while a debutant club makes a mark
Here are five talking points from the final weekend of the Premier League season:
Whatever happens in the title battle between Manchester City and Liverpool, which will go down to the final day of the season
IMAGES from English Premier League matches played on Sunday.
