In Saturday's action leaders Chelsea hit seven goals in the top-flight for the first time in 50 years when they hammered Sunderland 7-2 to lay down an ominous marker for the second half of the Premier League title race.
Frank Lampard and Nicolas Anelka scored twice as Chelsea turned on the style to move to 48 points, one more than champions Manchester United who were made to sweat for a 3-0 home victory over Burnley.
Arsenal, third on 42, visit Bolton Wanderers on Sunday while three of the teams battling for fourth place had days to forget as Manchester City lost 2-0 at Everton, Tottenham Hotspur drew 0-0 at home to Hull City and Liverpool drew 1-1 at Stoke City.
Chelsea had won just two of their previous six league games but clicked into gear immediately against an injury-hit Sunderland side described by their manager Steve Bruce as "inept". The points were effectively in the bag after 22 minutes following goals from Anelka, Florent Malouda and Ashley Cole.
Lampard made it 4-0 from close range before Michael Ballack headed the fifth and further goals from Lampard and Anelka completed a memorable win.
Roberto Mancini's four-game winning run since he took over at Manchester City ended when resurgent Everton outplayed his side at Goodison Park. A free kick by Steven Pienaar and a Louis Saha penalty put Everton two-up at halftime and only the peppered woodwork saved City from a heavier defeat. The win took Everton's unbeaten league run to seven games and was a wake-up call for Mancini, who introduced Robinho as an early substitute and then took the 32 million pounds ($52.28 million) Brazilian off in the second half after another ineffectual performance. While Everton are on the rise, neighbours Liverpool continue to struggle and they have now dropped 29 points this season compared to the 28 they leaked in the whole of last season when they were runners-up to United.
Sotiris Kyrgiakos's scrappy 58th-minute goal seemed likely to give them a much-needed lift after their FA Cup defeat by Reading on Wednesday but Stoke's Robert Huth equalised in injury time to leave manager Rafa Benitez frustrated again.
English Premier League results:
-- Played on Sunday:
-- Aston Villa 0 West Ham 0
-- Played on Saturday:
-- Chelsea 7 (Anelka 8, 65, Malouda 17, A.Cole 22, Lampard 34, 90, Ballack 52) Sunderland 2 (Zenden 56, Bent 90)
-- Everton 2 (Pienaar 36, Saha 45-pen) Man City 0
-- Man Utd 3 (Berbatov 64, Rooney 69, Diouf 90) Burnley 0
-- Stoke 1 (Huth 90) Liverpool 1 (Kyrgiakos 57)
-- Tottenham 0 Hull 0
-- Wolverhampton 0 Wigan 2 (McCarthy 60, N'Zogbia 73).