Liverpool head into Christmas with a four-point lead, a game in hand and looking every inch overwhelming title favourites in the Premier League on the back of a wild 6-3 win at Tottenham.
As for Manchester United and new manager Ruben Amorim, they stumble into the festive period in 13th — as low as they’ve been at Christmas since the 1989-90 season — and with a familiar sinking feeling.
United lost 3-0 at home to Bournemouth on Sunday for the second straight season, the latest statistic to show just how far the English giants have fallen and the job Amorim has to turn around their fortunes.
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Worse for United, it seems like their greatest rivals Liverpool can’t be stopped.
Make that 21 games in all competitions without defeat now after the Reds’ biggest league win of the season, with Mohamed Salah netting twice to move above Manchester City’s Erling Haaland as the season’s top marksman.
He’s the first ever to top the goalscoring (15) and assists (11) tables with double-figure tallies before Christmas in the EPL era.
Liverpool have 39 points from 16 games, four ahead of Chelsea, six clear of Arsenal and eight more than Nottingham Forest.
In a mad, end-to-end contest resembling a basketball match, Liverpool also netted through Luis Diaz (two), Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai.
Tottenham’s injury-hit defence were ripped open at the back but their attack caused Liverpool problems throughout, with James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke all scoring on another barmy day for Spurs coach Ange Postecoglou, whose side slipped to 11th.
“Obviously it’s a painful one for us, credit to Liverpool they were too strong for us today and we’re running a little bit on empty in terms of our energy levels, which is quite understandable with the situation we’re in,” said a disappointed Postecoglou.
The optimism generated by a last-gasp 2-1 derby win at Manchester City last weekend disappeared for Manchester United, who’d also lost 4-3 at Tottenham in the League Cup quarter-finals on Thursday as they were caned by Bournemouth.
“We were a bit nervous, I felt it in the stadium,” said Amorim, who has now won four and lost four in all competitions after leaving out Marcus Rashford for the third straight match.
Dean Huijsen, Justin Kluivert (penalty) and Antoine Semenyo scored for Bournemouth, who climbed to fifth.
Champions City have dropped, almost unthinkably, to seventh.
After all the money spent on players — $US1.3 billion ($A2.1 billion) and counting — and the huge turnover of managers, Chelsea could have topped the table with a win at Everton — for two hours at least.
However, a 0-0 draw, with Chelsea’s Nicolas Jackson coming closest to breaking the deadlock with a first-half header that hit the post, ended the Blues’ eight-match winning run in all competitions.
Vitor Pereira got off to a great start as Wolves manager as they beat Leicester 3-0.
Pereira took charge on Thursday as the replacement for Gary O’Neil and immediately ended Wolves’ four-game losing run as Goncalo Guedes, Rodrigo Gomes and Matheus Cunha scored first-half goals at King Power Stadium.
Wolves stayed in the relegation zone but moved two points behind Leicester, who are a place above the bottom three.
They handed Leicester manager Ruud van Nistelrooy a second straight big loss early in his reign, after a 4-0 defeat at Newcastle last weekend.
Another newly hired Premier League manager, Ivan Juric, began life at Southampton with a 0-0 draw at Fulham.
© AAP