Chelsea once again downed Tottenham at Stamford Bridge in the headline clash of the weekend's Premier League fixtures.
Fellow title hopefuls Liverpool, who still have a game in hand, closed the gap on leaders Manchester City to nine points with victory over Crystal Palace in south London.
Staying in the capital, Arsenal were held to a goalless draw by lowly Burnley as they lost ground in the race for the top four, while Leicester City shared the points with Brighton and Hove Albion.
With the action all over for a couple of weeks, Stats Perform unpacks the pick of the data from Sunday's fixtures.
Crystal Palace 1-3 Liverpool: Reds down Eagles again as Robertson delivers
Liverpool reduced Manchester City's advantage at the top to nine points after a 3-1 victory over Palace, who have lost each of their last 10 league meetings with the Reds.
Virgil van Dijk placed Jurgen Klopp's side in control after just eight minutes at Selhurst Park with his 10th headed goal in the competition – only Sami Hyypia (17) has scored more headers for the Reds in the Premier League.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain added a second after the half-hour mark as he scored in back-to-back top-flight matches for the first time since February 2020.
Both of those goals were created by Andrew Robertson, who now sits joint-second with team-mate Trent Alexander-Arnold (both 43) for the most assists in the league since the start of the 2017-18 season, with only Kevin De Bruyne boasting more (52).
Odsonne Edouard halved the deficit in the second half, but Fabinho secured three points with Liverpool's 169th Premier League spot-kick – the joint-most awarded to a team in the competition's history along with Manchester United.
Arsenal 0-0 Burnley: Gunners fail to fire against Clarets
Arsenal have failed to win any of their opening five games of a calendar year for the first time since 1995 after being held to a 0-0 draw by Burnley.
Nick Pope was in excellent form, while Alexandre Lacazette spurned a glorious open-goal opportunity, as the Clarets conceded 20 shots – the most they have faced in the Premier League without conceding since May 2021 (21 versus Fulham).
Lacazette's profligacy meant the Gunners have failed to score in four consecutive matches across all competitions for the first time since December 2005.
Arsenal will be desperate to improve upon their torrid run of form to challenge for the top four, with this stalemate being the first time the Gunners have failed to beat the team starting the day bottom of the table at home for the first time since October 2008.
Leicester City 1-1 Brighton and Hove Albion: Foxes tamed by away specialists
Leicester remained unbeaten at home to Brighton in the Premier League, though Brendan Rodgers may feel they should have claimed victory after a 1-1 draw.
Patson Daka broke the deadlock as he became just the second Foxes player to score in each of his first three home starts in the competition, after Leonardo Ulloa in the 2014-15 season.
The Zambia striker found the net just 26 seconds after the interval, the quickest goal scored in the second half of a top-flight game since February 2020.
However, Danny Welbeck levelled things up as he scored his fourth goal against Leicester in the Premier League, only bettering that haul in games with Aston Villa (five).
Neither side could find a late winner, ensuring the Foxes remain unbeaten at home to the Seagulls in the top flight since December 1980, while Graham Potter's side have only lost one of their last 11 away leagues games – a joint-low with Manchester City.
Chelsea 2-0 Tottenham: Blues make London derby history
Chelsea registered their fourth win in all competitions this season – and third in January alone – over London rivals Tottenham with a 2-0 triumph at Stamford Bridge.
Harry Kane thought he had struck first before the break but a slight push on Thiago Silva saw his finish ruled out before Hakim Ziyech expertly curled in his fifth league goal for Chelsea – all five of those having come at different venues.
Silva added a second soon after as he became the oldest player (37 years, 123 days) to score in the Premier League since February 2013 to condemn Antonio Conte to his first top-flight defeat as Spurs head coach.
The defender's header was set up by a free-kick from Mason Mount, who provided his 20th assist since the start of the 2019-20 campaign – the most by any Chelsea player across all competitions in that period.
Spurs were unable to breach the Blues' goal, meaning they have now gone six matches across all competitions since last scoring against Chelsea, who became the first side to collect 500 points in Premier League London derby matches (501 points from 272 derbies).
Conte: Napoli need to focus on improvement, not Serie A lead
Napoli should pay little attention to their place at the top of Serie A, so says Antonio Conte, who has demanded improvement from his team.
Romelu Lukaku's second-half goal handed Napoli a 1-0 win over Roma on Sunday.
That victory sent Napoli back to the summit of Serie A, with Conte's side one point ahead of Atalanta, Inter, Fiorentina and Lazio, while Juventus are only four points back in a six-team title race.
Napoli needed to get back to winning ways after a draw against Inter and a 3-0 loss to Atalanta before the international break, and Conte insists his team must sharpen up.
"Before the match, I told the lads not to look at the table, but to focus on ourselves and improving what we are working on," Conte told Sky Sport Italia.
"I maintain that now too because we need to take a series of steps to raise the level.
"I was satisfied with the performance for a good 65 minutes today, we could’ve taken more of our chances and were up against a strong Roma who have great players.
"Roma were also making their debut under a new coach and therefore were very eager to prove themselves, but we still should've dealt with the final 15-20 minutes better, as we sat too deep and made it complicated for ourselves."
Roma, playing under new boss Claudio Ranieri, came close to equalising when Artem Dovbyk hit the woodwork with a header.
Ranieri came out of retirement to take charge of Roma following Ivan Juric's dismissal earlier in November, though the visitors had just six shots and accumulated only 0.6 expected goals (xG) at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
"If we look back, we have some problems and that is why I was called. We were up against a team that is fighting to win the Scudetto," Ranieri told Sky Sport Italia.
"Having said all of that, I am happy with the performance from my players. We made some mistakes that we will talk about during the week, but the hunger, the determination to get back on track was there.
"We have a lot of work to do, but I feel positive.
"We know there is work to be done, we have to focus on reacting rather than sitting there feeling sorry for ourselves.
"The [players] need the right character to help themselves and then others. Naturally, when I arrived, the team was a little closed up, but I think we started to open up a bit by the second half."
Slot relishing Liverpool's Real Madrid, Man City double-header
Arne Slot is relishing Liverpool's upcoming double-header against Real Madrid and Manchester City.
Liverpool came from behind thanks to Mohamed Salah's second-half double to beat Southampton 3-2 on Sunday.
That victory at St Mary's moved the Reds eight points clear of Man City, who were thrashed 4-0 at home by Tottenham on Saturday for a fifth straight defeat in all competitions.
Pep Guardiola's team visit Anfield on December 1, though first the Reds host European champions Madrid in the Champions League.
And Slot cannot wait for Liverpool to go up against two heavyweights.
"It's what you need in a league like this, with so many quality teams. You have to keep winning because if you don’t, the other ones will," the Dutchman told BBC Sport.
"That's what we try to do every game, now it's Real Madrid and next Sunday it's Man City.
"You couldn't wish for more than playing these two games in the upcoming week, at home."
No manager in Premier League history has reached 10 wins in fewer matches from the start of their career in the competition than Slot (12 games, level with Guus Hiddink and Carlo Ancelotti).
Liverpool were indebted to Salah, however, with the forward dragging them level and then converting the winner from the penalty spot after Mateus Fernandes had put Southampton into a surprise lead early in the second half, following goals from Dominik Szoboszlai and Adam Armstrong before the break.
Salah became the first player to score in five successive Premier League appearances for Liverpool since the Egyptian himself in October 2021 (seven in a row). His second goal was his 100th away from Anfield for Liverpool in all competitions.
"It was very good that Mo scored in that moment," said Slot of Salah's first goal, which came in the 65th minute when he nudged Ryan Gravenberch's pass beyond the stranded Alex McCarthy.
"It was not the best period of the game so he helped us with that and then afterwards we dominated so much, they got tired.
"That is what special players do. They can score goals out of nowhere. It's not completely out of nowhere because the assist of Gravenberch is a great ball as well, but Mo is known for the timing of his runs, he feels the right moment to run behind the last line, and normally you know he’s not offside because he always finds the right moment, and then he scores the goal, which was very helpful for us."
While Slot acknowledged Liverpool were tested by the Premier League's bottom club, he felt his team were always in control.
He added: "It wasn't a surprise for us, we saw how they played against Man City, Arsenal and Newcastle in away games, never mind how they would play in a home game against a top team. But we dominated. Because we went down 2-1, it made it really difficult for us.
"We dominated the whole game, which is not that easy against Southampton because they want possession, they want to dominate the game as well, but they couldn't. Because the scoreline was as it was, it felt like a difficult match, but if you look at the underlying numbers we deserved to win."
Those metrics support Slot's point. Liverpool accumulated 2.9 expected goals from 27 shots, 11 of which were on target, while they also limited Southampton to 37.9% possession.
Cooper sacked by Leicester after winless run
Leicester City have dismissed manager Steve Cooper after a run of four Premier League games without a win.
Cooper, who previously managed Leicester's rivals Nottingham Forest, only took charge of the Foxes for 15 games in all competitions.
He was appointed in June, after Enzo Maresca left to join Chelsea following Leicester's promotion back to the Premier League.
After going six league games without a win at the start of the season, Cooper appeared to have steadied the ship with victories over Bournemouth and Southampton.
However, a winless streak of four top-flight matches, in which Leicester lost to Forest, Manchester United and Chelsea, while drawing with Ipswich Town, has seen Cooper lose his position.
In a statement released on Sunday, Leicester confirmed Cooper's assistants Alan Tate and Steve Rands had also left the club, with Ben Dawson set to take charge until a replacement is appointed.
Former Brighton and Chelsea boss Graham Potter was reportedly in talks to join Leicester prior to Cooper's appointment in the summer.
The Foxes are 16th in the Premier League on 10 points after 12 games.
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