Bottom of the table Queens Park Rangers picked up only their second Premier League victory of the season as they stunned European champions Chelsea 1-0 at Stamford Bridge.
Former Chelsea player Shaun Wright-Phillips goal with 12 minutes left, his first league goal in over a year pulled QPR within five points from safety.
It was a crucial victory for Rangers that ended their three-match losing run, giving Harry Redknapp his second win since becoming manager last month.
Chelsea have been much improved lately under Rafa Benitez, but this was a really poor performance. Chelsea’s recent run of form had allowed them to crawl to within 1 point potentially of second place Manchester City, but any title ambitions that Chelsea had were seriously dented tonight.
At Anfield, Liverpool continued their good holiday form to beat Sunderland 3-0 behind another outstanding performance by Luis Suarez .
Firstly, Suarez played provider for teenager Raheem Sterling, as his pass allowed Sterling to coolly Simon Mignolet in the Sunderland goal from the edge of the penalty box.
Then Steven Gerrard split open the Sunderland defence and referee Phil Dowd played a good advantage as Suarez bounced off a challenge, to drill the ball past Mignolet.
Suarez made it 3-0 early in the second half as Liverpool moved up to eight in the table. After their tough start to the season under Brendan Rodgers, Liverpool begin 2013 only eight points behind third-place Spurs.
One of the teams ahead of Liverpool is Merseyside rivals Everton, who won 2-1 at St James’ Park as Newcastle United’s poor run of form continues.
Newcastle had taken the lead in the opening moments of the game when the Everton defence inexplicably allowed Tim Krul’s long clearance to bounce on the edge of the penalty area and, Papiss Cisse calmly headed it over the stranded Tim Howard.
England international Leighton Baines slammed home a terrific 30-yard free kick to equalise for the Toffees, after Marouane Fellaini, back from suspension had been fouled.
That set the stage for Victor Anichebe, who replaced Steven Naismith in the 58th minute, to finish from close range on the hour to send Everton into fifth.