Manchester City and Liverpool remained unbeaten in the Premier League on Saturday as did Chelsea, but just barely.
Champions Man City thrashed Burnley 5-0 and Liverpool edged Huddersfield 1-0, leaving the two level in the table on 23 points.
Chelsea needed Ross Barkley's stoppage-time to rescue a 2-2 draw with Manchester United that kept them undefeated but now two points behind the leaders.
“After we scored the second goal and third quickly it was much easier,” Man City manager Pep Guardiola, whose side are top on goal difference over Liverpool, said.
“The goals were so outstanding - beautiful, beautiful goals - and the chances we created, and it's three more points."
Man City controlled the first half at the Etihad Stadium but only led 1-0 through Sergio Aguero.
The champions scored a disputed goal in the 54th minute as Burnley's players all stopped in anticipation of a penalty when Leroy Sane went down and David Silva crossed for Bernardo Silva to fire home.
Fernandinho made it 3-0 two minutes later before Riyad Mahrez and Sane completed the rout.
Liverpool were forced to work harder than expected by winless Huddersfield.
Mohamed Salah scored the only goal as the Reds ended a four-match winless run in all competitions.
Salah slotted home in the 24th minute for his first goal in five games overall.
"Tough game, but in the end we got the three points and that's most important," Salah told BT Sport.
"We had to fight."
Huddersfield had several good chances to equalize but came up empty and remain 19th on three points.
Manchester United looked set for a first win at Chelsea since 2012 after Anthony Martial's second-half brace cancelled out Antonio Ruediger's opener.
But second-half substitute Barkley equalized in the 96th minute, leaving Jose Mourinho questioning the amount of added time.
“I hope every referee does the same as Mike Dean and gives six minutes, I don't know where they came from,” the United manger said.
“We always tried to play, there was no time wasting.”
At the other end of the table, Cardiff moved off the bottom by beating Fulham 4-2 for their first win.
The Bluebirds took advantage of the league's worst defence with goals from Josh Murphy, Bobby Reid, Callum Patterson and Kadeem Harris lifting them up to 17th.
“We wanted to have a go at them and we did,” Cardiff boss Neil Warnock said.
“Everyone worked to the plan and on another day we could have got more but I can’t be too greedy.
“I can enjoy my weekend now.”
Fulham fall into the bottom three above Huddersfield and winless Newcastle, whose 1-0 loss to Brighton made them the fourth English top-flight team to lose their first five homes games in a season.
Erik Lamela's goal gave Tottenham Hotspur a 1-0 win at West Ham United, Etienne Capoue and Roberto Pereyra scored a minute apart as Watford beat Wolverhampton 2-0 and Bournemouth played out a goalless home draw with Southampton.
Everton host Crystal Palace in Sunday's lone match.
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Liverpool stun Manchester CityMaintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
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All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©
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