Chelsea followed up their Capital One Cup victory with a hard-fought 1-0 win on their return to Barclays Premier League business at West Ham.
Jose Mourinho won a first trophy of his second spell as Blues boss with a 2-0 win over Tottenham on Sunday and Chelsea remain well placed to add a first Premier League title in five years.
The Hammers had one win in 17 against the Blues entering the contest but refused to be cowed by the leaders and deserved more, only for Eden Hazard's first-half header to settle the contest, keeping Chelsea five points clear of second-placed Manchester City. But the leaders were indebted to a number of fine saves from the restored Thibaut Courtois.
David Silva and James Milner struck late in each half as under-fire reigning champions City grabbed a scrappy but much-needed 2-0 win over Leicester. Silva pounced from close range to put City ahead after an unconvincing start at the Etihad Stadium and Milner came off the bench to settle nerves in the last minute. It was far from a fluent display from City but the result will at least take some of the heat off manager Manuel Pellegrini after a testing few days.
Tottenham got their top-four tilt back on track by overcoming Swansea 3-2 on a night when Bafetimbi Gomis' collapse had those inside White Hart Lane fearing the worst.
As play was about to restart following Nacer Chadli's wonderful, early opener, paramedics and medical staff raced onto the field to tend to the French striker after he went down.
Hush fell on the ground where Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba suffered a cardiac arrest three years ago, but good news emanated from the Swansea dressing room that Gomis was fine and had not been hospitalised after feinting.
Garry Monk's side will have unlikely been aware of the positive news when Ki Sung-Yueng drew parity in a match which Spurs would go onto win, with second-half strikes from Ryan Mason and Andros Townsend securing the result after Gylfi Sigurdsson's late strike.
Liverpool picked up their seventh win in eight games as they comfortably saw off Burnley at Anfield. Goals in either half from Jordan Henderson and Daniel Sturridge were more than enough to see off the second-bottom strugglers on another night when the defensive solidity of Brendan Rodgers' side shone through. Liverpool have kept seven clean sheets in their last 11 games as they claimed 29 points out of a possible 33.
Merseyside rivals Everton endured further misery as goals from Victor Moses and Mame Biram Diouf condemned them to a 2-0 defeat at Stoke.
Olivier Giroud and Alexis Sanchez guided Arsenal to a routine 2-1 victory at struggling QPR, despite Charlie Austin striking back late on. France striker Giroud's fifth goal in as many games set Arsenal on course, before Sanchez ended a seven-game drought.
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