Results:
Brighton & Hove Albion 2 AFC Bournemouth 0
Newcastle United 1 Everton 2
Southampton 1 Crystal Palace 1
Watford 3 Aston Villa 0
Norwich City 2 Tottenham Hotspur 2
West Ham United 1 Leicester City 2
Burnley 0 Manchester United 2
Round-up: The Premier League continued its busy festive schedule with a weekend schedule of fixtures, which began with a fixture betweeen two South Coast sides, as Brighton & Hove Albion hosted AFC Bournemouth in a match between two sides just outside the relegation zone. In the end, it was the hosts who triumphed in a deserved 2-0 victory, thanks to Alireza Jahanbakhsh's first ever Premier League goal after 3 minutes, which was followed by an Aaron Mooy goal 11 minutes from time to cap off a brilliant performance from the Seagulls, who also had a Dan Burn goal disallowed by the VAR for offside by a miniscule margin. In the afternoon's matches, Everton continued their brilliant start under manager Carlo Ancelotti, as they recorded their second consecutive league victory thanks to a Dominic Calvert-Lewin brace either side of half-time, in a 2-1 triumph away to Newcastle United, who had equalised thanks to Fabian Schar. Meanwhile, another side who seem to have benefitted from a managerial change are Watford, who recorded a second league win in 3 games, this time a 3-0 win at home to Aston Villa thanks to a Troy Deeney brace (with the second goal coming from the penalty spot) and an Ismaila Sarr goal. Southampton extended their unbeaten league run to 3 consecutive league games, as a Danny Ings equaliser cancelled out James Tomkins' goal which had given Crystal Palace the lead. There were 3 matches which took place in the evening, starting in East London, as a struggling West Ham United hosted high-flying Leicester City. Despite fielding a much changed team, Leicester ended a run of 3 consecutive league games without victory. The away side had a golden opportunity to take the lead early on, as Lukasz Fabianski took out Leicester striker Kelechi Iheanacho and conceded a penalty as a result, however, Demarai Gray's resulting spot kick was poor and saved fairly easily by Fabianski. Leicester did then take a deserved lead 5 minutes before half-time, as Ayoze Perez kept the ball in and cut it back for Iheanacho who calmly finished. However, that lead did not last until half-time, as Pablo Fornals equalised for West Ham after some brilliant build-up play. Leicester were the superior team in the second half as well, and they deservedly restored the lead in the 56th minute thanks to Gray, who atoned for his failure from the penalty spot through a superbly composed finish into the corner of the net. In the end, Leicester held on comfortably to claim their first victory since the 8th December which has enabled them to maintain second place in the league table. As a consequence of this defeat, Manuel Pellegrini has been sacked as West Ham manager.
Another match which took place at the same time as the West Ham match saw bottom side Norwich City host José Mourinho's Tottenham Hotspur. The hosts took the lead in the 18th minute thanks to Mario Vrancic's first ever Premier League goal. It seemed as though Norwich had doubled their lead thanks to a 33rd minute goal from Finnish striker Teemu Pukki, however, the goal was extremely controversially ruled out by the VAR for an alleged offside. Christian Eriksen then showed why he is one of the best free kick takers currently around, as he struck a brilliant free-kick in the 55th minute to equalise for Tottenham. Serge Aurier then inadvertently helped restore Norwich's lead as the ball bounced off him and into the net. Tottenham then had a goal from Dele Alli correctly disallowed for offside, before they were then handed a golden chance to equalise once more, as Christoph Zimmermann fouled Harry Kane in the penalty area, and Kane made no mistake from the resulting spot kick to help Tottenham rescue a point. The action today concluded with a clash up in the North West, as Burnley hosted Manchester United. In the end, Manchester United registered their second consecutive league win thanks to goals from Anthony Martial in the 44th minute, and Marcus Rashford in the 95th minute as Manchester United caught Burnley on the counter-attack with the hosts desperately trying to find an equaliser.
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