Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s dream start to life in the Manchester United hotseat continued at Newcastle as the caretaker manager emulated Sir Matt Busby’s record feat of winning his first four league matches in charge.
The encouraging post-Jose Mourinho era continued at St James’ Park, where the Norwegian’s side emerged from their toughest test to date with another three points and a clean sheet to boot.
Solskjaer’s Reds rode their luck at times as Christian Atsu proved a thorn in their side, but substitute Romelu Lukaku scored with his first touch of the game before Marcus Rashford wrapped up a 2-0 win at Rafael Benitez’s struggling Newcastle.
Chelsea dropped two points in their bid for a Champions League return as Southampton saw out a stalemate at Stamford Bridge.
Eden Hazard was twice denied by Saints goalkeeper Angus Gunn and Alvaro Morata had a strike ruled out for offside as the Blues’ lack of attacking precision was evident once more in the goalless draw.
Chelsea reached the turn of the year in fourth place, five points clear of Arsenal, but the Gunners’ win over Fulham on New Year’s Day, plus the stubbornness of relegation-threatened Saints, cut their advantage to three points.
Crystal Palace’s late show earned a deserved 2-0 win at Wolves.
Jordan Ayew and Luka Milivojevic, from the penalty spot, scored in the final seven minutes to ease Palace’s goal woes.
Ashley Barnes’ second-half winner clinched Burnley a 2-1 win at 10-man relegation rivals Huddersfield and lifted them out of the bottom three.
Barnes notched his fifth goal of the season after Chris Wood had cancelled out Steve Mounie’s first-half opener for Huddersfield, who slumped to a club record eighth straight defeat.
The home side battled bravely despite being a man down for the entire second period following Christopher Schindler’s dismissal for two yellow-card offences just before the break.
Burnley also ended with 10 men after substitute Robbie Brady’s straight red card for a cynical challenge on Isaac Mbenza in the closing stages.
Marko Arnautovic’s quickfire double rescued West Ham from another defeat by bogey side Brighton.
The Hammers were staring at a fourth loss in four meetings with Brighton since they were promoted after goals from Dale Stephens and Shane Duffy put the visitors in charge.
But two goals in two minutes from Austrian forward Arnautovic lifted the hoodoo as West Ham snatched a 2-2 draw.
Callum Wilson and Ryan Fraser struck equalisers just three minutes apart as Bournemouth salvaged a madcap 3-3 Premier League draw with Watford.
Troy Deeney’s early brace had Watford 2-0 to the good, before Nathan Ake and Wilson had Bournemouth level – but for less than a minute.
Ken Sema fired in from Deeney’s knock-down to nudge Watford into a 3-2 lead, but one the Hornets could only hold for two minutes.
The excellent Fraser’s composed finish drew Bournemouth level at 3-3 before half-time, and despite a clutch of Cherries chances after the break, so the scores remained.
Tuesday
Harry Kane ended his Cardiff hoodoo as Tottenham stayed in the Premier League title picture with a 3-0 win in the Welsh capital.
Kane had previously scored at least once against 27 of the 28 Premier League opponents he had faced, with Cardiff the solitary team he had failed to net against in three previous encounters.
But Kane needed only two and a half minutes to put that record straight on New Year’s Day, and further goals from Christian Eriksen and Son Heung-min provided a swift panacea to the pain of losing 3-1 at home to Wolves on Saturday.
Arsenal recovered from their thrashing at Liverpool by seeing off lowly Fulham at the Emirates Stadium – with Aaron Ramsey coming off the bench to wrap up the three points.
The Gunners were humbled by a 5-1 mauling at Anfield and still looked timid at times as Fulham missed a number of decent chances before Unai Emery’s side ran out comfortable 4-1 winners.
Goals from Granit Xhaka, Alexandre Lacazette, substitute Ramsey and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang added gloss to the scoreline, with Fulham’s lone strike coming from Aboubakar Kamara.
Jamie Vardy’s second-half goal condemned Everton to a fourth loss in five matches as Leicester won 1-0 at Goodison Park in the first Premier League game of 2019.
Vardy produced a slotted finish in the 58th minute to punish a mistake by Michael Keane.
In a contest that was low on entertainment, Everton went close during the first-half when Jonjoe Kenny fired against the frame of the goal.