The Premier League title race took another twist as leaders Arsenal surrendered a 2-0 advantage to draw at Liverpool, while Erling Haaland fired Manchester City to a 4-1 win over Southampton.
Tempers flared at Tottenham and the battle to avoid relegation continued to hot up with Wolves, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and West Ham all earning vital victories.
Here, Football Mad takes a look at five things we learned from the latest round of Premier League fixtures.
Title race going to wire?
Pep Guardiola’s City gained on Arsenal at the top of the table with the Gunners being held to a draw in a 2-2 thriller against Liverpool after being 2-0 up inside half-an-hour.
With City having earned a convincing win over struggling Southampton in the late kick-off on Saturday, they are now just six points behind Mikel Arteta’s men – with a game in hand – following Sunday’s incident-packed clash at Anfield.
Roberto Firmino’s late equaliser secured a point for the hosts, who could even have snatched a win at the death if not for a great double save from Gunners goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale.
The match also saw Mohamed Salah miss a penalty for Liverpool and an incident involving Reds defender Andy Robertson and linesman Constantine Hatzidakis which refereeing body PGMOL is set to investigate.
Can Haaland overhaul Shearer and Cole?
After recovering from a groin injury, prolific City striker Haaland picked up where he left off with two more goals in the win at St Mary’s to take his Premier League tally for the season to 30.
That has left the Norway international just four goals away from equalling the the Premier League single-season scoring record of 34, jointly held by Alan Shearer and Andy Cole.
With nine fixtures still remaining in his maiden Premier League campaign, few would bet against the 22-year-old eclipsing those two and setting his own record mark.
Tempers flare in Tottenham
A feisty affair took place at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as managers clashed and refereeing decisions were called into question again during Spurs’ 2-1 win over Brighton.
Interim Spurs manager Cristian Stellini and Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi exchanged words pre-match and both ended up being sent off in the second half after a melee occurred between both benches.
A frustrating afternoon for Brighton then saw their penalty appeals waved away when Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg caught Kaoru Mitoma inside the box.
PGMOL were forced to apologise again after admitting on Sunday that the penalty should have been awarded.
Relegation race takes another turn
How's your Easter Sunday? #CPFC | #LEECRY pic.twitter.com/CPPP5CvxFL
— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) April 9, 2023
The battle to stay in the division threw up some big results as four clubs in the thick of the relegation dogfight picked up three valuable points over the weekend.
Roy Hodgson’s fine return as Crystal Palace boss continued on Sunday as his side secured back-to-back wins under him with a 5-1 thrashing of fellow strugglers Leeds at Elland Road.
That came 24 hours after Bournemouth climbed out of the bottom three with a 1-0 win over managerless Leicester, who are 19th and without a win in eight league games.
West Ham also bounced back from their midweek thrashing against Newcastle and bought some breathing space with a 1-0 victory at Fulham, while Wolves moved four points clear of trouble with a 1-0 win over Chelsea.
Reality hits for Lampard ahead of Real test
Reality quickly hit for Frank Lampard as his return to Chelsea was dampened following the defeat to Wolves.
Lampard was reappointed manager on an interim basis earlier this week, but was unable to get his second spell in charge off to a winning start as Matheus Nunes’ stunning first-half strike settled matters at Molineux.
Chelsea remain 11th after just two wins in 11 league games and are up against holders Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals on Wednesday.
