Jean-Philippe Mateta salvaged a late point for Crystal Palace as Chelsea's winless streak in the Premier League extended to four contests with a 1-1 draw.
Cole Palmer’s 13th goal of the season opened the scoring at Selhurst Park, where the visitors dominated in the first half.
They were unable to find the finishing touch on a number of chances, however, and came to regret it when the Frenchman levelled in the 82nd minute.
Once-relegation-threatened Palace have now picked up 14 points from their last 10 top-flight contests.
The last two editions of this fixture had gone Chelsea's way, decided by last-gasp winners from former Palace loanee Conor Gallagher.
But with the former Blues midfielder now departed for Atletico Madrid the story unfolded differently – Dean Henderson nullifying Chelsea’s late threat when he punched away a corner to preserve the point.
Everton's goalscoring woes continued in a 1-0 defeat to Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium.
Sean Dyche’s team look increasingly like being drawn into a relegation fight as they failed to produce a shot on target in 90 minutes, as their poor run extended to one goal scored in their last five Premier League games.
Their inability to trouble their hosts was made to look almost comical by the ease with which Bournemouth cut through them again and again, and another assured display made it five wins in eight for Andoni Iraola’s side.
The winning goal 13 minutes from time encapsulated everything Everton were not. Milos Kerkez sent a finely-calibrated cross into the box where it arrived at the perfect height for David Brooks to skip into the air and, with the kind of confidence that his team’s brilliant season so far imbues, volleyed beyond Jordan Pickford into the far corner.
Goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga started on the bench having spent time at home in Spain after his partner had given birth to twins. Republic of Ireland's Mark Travers deputised but Iraola need not have lost sleep over his selection in goal such was the absence of anything like a threat from Everton.
Aston Villa got their Premier League top-four ambitions back on track with a 2-1 win over Leicester.
Villa's quest for a second successive year in the Champions League has been hamstrung by inconsistency this season, but they kicked off 2025 with an important three points.
Leon Bailey chose a good time to score his first goal of the season 14 minutes from time after Ross Barkley’s opener had been quickly cancelled out by Stephy Mavididi.
Victory moved Unai Emery’s men to within four points of fourth-placed Chelsea as they now break for FA Cup action.
The table makes much more miserable reading for Leicester, who remain in the bottom three after a fifth successive defeat.
Bryan Mbeumo scored twice as Brentford thumped sorry Southampton 5-0 for their first Premier League away win of the season.
Cameroon forward Mbeumo, linked with a potential January move to Arsenal, piled on the misery for rock-bottom Saints after Kevin Schade had fired the Bees ahead.
Keane Lewis-Potter and Yoane Wissa added insult to injury in stoppage time at the end of another thoroughly miserable afternoon for Southampton.
The new manager bounce they were looking for after replacing Russell Martin with Ivan Juric has turned into more of a new manager thud after a third straight defeat since the Croatian was appointed.
They remain stuck on six points from 20 matches and look not only doomed to relegation, but also in serious of danger of breaking Derby's unwanted record of collecting only 11 points over an entire Premier League season.
