Manchester United saw their six-match winning run come to an end as they were held to a 1-1 draw away to Aston Villa.
Christian Benteke netted the opener, making space inside the area before curling a shot into the top corner, but United hit back eight minutes into the second half as Radamel Falcao headed in for his second goal for the club.
Villa’s hopes receded when Gabriel Agbonlahor received a red card for a heavy tackle on former teammate Ashley Young, but they held on for a point and even came close to snatching a late winner.
David Silva struck twice as Manchester City made light of their absence of strikers to brush troubled Crystal Palace aside 3-0 at the Etihad Stadium.
Yaya Toure also got on the scoresheet as the champions moved level on points with Chelsea at the top of the Premier League. It was in-form City’s eighth successive win in all competitions — one short of equalling a club record — and drew them level at the top of the table, although Chelsea have a game in hand.
Tottenham Hotspur made it back-to-back wins in the Premier League as they saw off Burnley 2-1 at White Hart Lane.
Spurs took the lead after good work from Nacer Chadli allowed Harry Kane to head home for his 14th goal in all competitions, but Burnley levelled through an excellent strike from Ashley Barnes.
However, Erik Lamela restored the home side’s lead soon afterwards with a wonderful solo strike, cutting in from the right before curling into the far corner, which proved to be winner.
Southampton bounced back from their miserable run of form in style as they recorded a comfortable 3-0 win over Everton.
Saints went into the game on the back of five consecutive defeats in all competitions, but they took a lead when Everton striker Romelu Lukaku headed a corner past Tim Howard and into his own net on 38 minutes.
Southampton then doubled their advantage when Graziano Pelle converted from a Shane Long cross, and Maya Yoshida added a third late on.
Andy Carroll broke the deadlock to keep West Ham in the Champions League spots.
West Ham United remain fourth in the table after a comfortable 2-0 win at home to rock-bottom Leicester City.
Charlie Austin returned from suspension to steal the show with a hat-trick as Queens Park Rangers recovered from two goals down at home to West Bromwich Albion to win 3-2 and move out of the bottom three.
The striker was missing from the defeat at Everton on Monday night but moved on to 11 goals for the season as he hit three to see off a West Brom side which had stunned Loftus Road with a scintillating start through Joleon Lescott and Silvestre Varela goals.
Ki Sung-Yueng was the unwitting match-winner in a 1-0 game asSwansea City returned to winning ways at the expense of a Hull Cityside who look set for a long, hard relegation battle.
The visitors scored the only goal of the game in the 14th minute when South Korean midfielder Ki attempted to turn his back on Jonjo Shelvey’s shot and instead succeeded in diverting past Allan McGregor with his lower arm. While that represented a considerable slice of luck, it was no less than the visitors deserved, with Shelvey hitting the post with a second long-range effort and Bafetimbi Gomis also denied by the woodwork in the latter stages.
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