Arsenal secured a dominant 4-0 victory over Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup, while Leeds United edged Birmingham City on penalties, and Wolverhampton Wanderers battled to a 1-0 win against Grimsby Town.
Teenager Tom Edozie scored a 94th-minute equaliser on debut as Arsenal let a two-goal lead slip at bottom side Wolverhampton Wanderers in a 2-2 draw.
Arsenal extends its lead in the Premier League, while Manchester United strengthens its top-four bid. Chelsea's Cole Palmer shines with a hat-trick, and West Ham earns a crucial win in their fight against relegation.
Manchester City halved Arsenal's lead at the top of the Premier League to three points with a 3-0 win over visitors Fulham, while Aston Villa stayed in the frame with a late 1-0 victory at home to Brighton & Hove Albion on Wednesday.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta called on his players to "live in the present" ahead of Sunday's visit to local rivals Tottenham Hotspur in a battle to stay ahead in the title race after their lead was cut short by successive Premier League draws.
IMAGES from Premier League matches played on Sunday.
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.
Aston Villa and Chelsea drop crucial points in the Premier League as Leeds and Burnley earn draws; James Milner sets appearance record.
Manchester United's Benjamin Sesko scoring a stoppage-time equaliser to deny 18th-placed West Ham United a 1-0 win.
Arsenal beat Bournemouth 3-2 on Saturday to extend their lead at the top of the English Premier League.
While Wolves are looking down, United are beginning to look up and while there were times in the first half when they looked vulnerable, their second-half display was silky.
Arsenal closed out 2025 in emphatic fashion, smashing third-placed Aston Villa 4-1 on Tuesday to surge five points clear at the top of the Premier League.
Goals from Omar Marmoush and Antoine Semenyo powered Manchester City to a muchneeded 20 home win over Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday, lifting Pep Guardiola's men provisionally to within four points of leaders Arsenal in the Premier League title race.
Carrick faces first test as United boss in Manchester derby showdown
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.
Non-league Macclesfield produced perhaps the FA Cup's greatest upset on Saturday when they beat holders Crystal Palace 2-1 in a thirdround thriller, knocking Oliver Glasner's team out of the competition and sending the Moss Rose crowd into raptures.
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.
Liverpool striker Alexander Isak is expected to be sidelined for at least a couple of months after breaking his leg and undergoing surgery.
Arsenal missed a chance to tighten their grip on the Premier League title race with a 1-1 draw at 10-man Chelsea on Sunday.
Arsenal's Premier League title prospects were enhanced without them even kicking a ball on Wednesday as their closest challengers Manchester City and Aston Villa both dropped points.
After Saturday's 2-1 win at Chelsea - their 12th in 13 league matches - Aston Villa have claimed 18 points from losing positions so far this season, more than any other team.
Manchester City maintained their squeeze on Arsenal at the top of the Premier League with a 3-0 victory at Crystal Palace on Sunday, a result that keeps Pep Guardiola's side lurking two points behind the leaders and ready to pounce.
Arsenal took a seven-point lead at the top of the Premier League after a scoreless draw with Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
Promoted Sunderland, who have defied expectations to stay in the top half of the Premier League table, could be the worst affected with six players going to the tournament, while the likes of Fulham, Manchester United, Burnley and Crystal Palace will also have to make do without some key personnel.
Arsenal re-established their five-point lead at the top of the Premier League with a 2-0 home win against Brentford on Wednesday and for the second evening running the goals flowed as Aston Villa won 4-3 in a thriller at Brighton and Hove Albion.
'I don't think that's fair, because we have other competitions as well we have to try to accommodate.'
IMAGES from Premier League matches played on Saturday
Billy Wright, Derek Dougan and Steve Bull are among those already inducted in the club's Hall of Fame, which was established in 2008.
Manchester City posted a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Brentford to jump to fifth spot in the English Premier League table on Sunday.
Substitute Jorgen Strand Larsen scored twice in two minutes as Wolverhampton Wanderers beat fellow Premier League strugglers West Ham United 3-2 to reach the third round of the League Cup on Tuesday.
Second-string Liverpool were thumped 3-0 by Crystal Palace as Ismaila Sarr struck twice for the visitors in the League Cup on Wednesday, booking the London side's spot in the quarter-finals and piling more misery on Arne Slot's struggling side.
Crystal Palace scored a stoppage-time winner to edge Liverpool 2-1 while Manchester United and Chelsea lost by an identical 3-1 margin in the English Premier League on Saturday.
Arsenal maintained a searing pace at the top of the Premier League with a straightforward 2-0 win at Burnley, while Liverpool snapped a dreadful four-match losing run with a 2-0 victory over Aston Villa to climb provisionally to third.
Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim would have enjoyed some relative calm during the international break after backing from club co-owner Jim Ratcliffe but will find himself in the Premier League maelstrom once again at Liverpool on Sunday.
Rodri only made return to competitive action in May after eight months out of action due to a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.
Erling Haaland took his league tally this season to 11 in eight games with both goals in City's 2-0 home win over Everton -- a result that temporarily put City above Arsenal on goals scored.
It took 10 Premier League games for the first cracks to appear in Manchester City's facade last season, but Pep Guardiola got a much earlier reminder of his side's fall from grace on Saturday in another defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.
A summary of Saturday's action in the Premier League.
Diogo Jota, a Liverpool forward, and his younger brother Andre Silva were killed in a car accident in northwestern Spain on Thursday morning.
Captain Kevin De Bruyne scored in his penultimate game at Etihad Stadium as Manchester City beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 on Friday to climb to third in the Premier League and boost their chances of Champions League qualification.
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