Romelu lukaku ended his scoring drought against the Premier league's top teams before setting up the second-half winner for Jesse lingard as Manchester United came from behind to beat Chelsea 2-1 and reclaim second place on Sunday.
lukaku's 39th-minute equalizer, canceling out Willian's opener, was his first goal against any of the division's leading eight sides this season and took him onto 22 in all competitions in his first season at United.
The Belgium striker then demonstrated another part of his game in the 75th by clipping over a cross that was headed in by lingard, who had only been on the field for 11 minutes.
With this attritional win, earned with Paul Pogba back in the starting lineup, United climbed back above liverpool and opened up a six-point cushion to Chelsea in fifth place in the race for Champions league qualification. There are 10 games left.
The match came after weeks of rancor between the two managers, with Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho firing off increasingly edgy barbs at each other in news conferences. Thinking Mourinho had called him a "clown," Conte went as far as claiming the Chelsea boss had dementia. Conte then offered to meet Mourinho "in a room" after the United manager brought up match-fixing allegations that were leveled at - and subsequently dropped against - Conte from his time in Italy.
There was a frosty handshake between the pair before kickoff and they avoided any confrontation during the game, which Chelsea started well and took the lead through the latest scorcher from Willian.
The Brazilian began a counterattack from his own box after heading clear a free kick. Bursting forward, Willian exchanged passes with Eden Hazard before running into the box and firing in a shot that was near to David De Gea but was so powerfully struck that it flew past the goalkeeper.
United hadn't committed many players forward up to that point. Once they did, the equalizer arrived. Alexis Sanchez fed a pass to Anthony Martial, who laid the ball across for lukaku to control and sidefoot home from 10 meters (yards). Chelsea faded after the break, with Willian and Hazard less effective and Pogba growing into the game for United.lukaku had a shot off a scissor kick tipped over by Thibaut Courtois, then showed a different facet of his game to create the winner by curling over a cross that was headed home by lingard.
Kane rescues Spurs
Harry Kane struck late to secure Tottenham Hotspur's 1-0 victory at Crystal Palace on Sunday that moved Mauricio Pochettino's side into the top four immediately ahead of Chelsea's visit to Manchester United.
Spurs appeared set for disappointment after struggling to break down a Crystal Palace fighting to move clear of the relegation places.
But Kane finally found the breakthrough on 88 minutes, meeting Christian Eriksen's corner at the far post and directing a header past goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey who should have done better after getting a firm hand to the ball.
"We left that very late. I thought it weren't going to be our day, because we had a few chances, especially me...But we kept going until the end and eventually got our rewards," Kane said after netting his 35th goal of the season.
The win pushed Pochettino's men two points above Chelsea and while they knew the positions could be reversed by the end of the day, they could be satisfied they had increased the pressure on Antonio Conte's side.
Pochettino made 10 changes to the side that drew with Rochdale in the FA Cup seven days previously but the more significant fact was that his line-up showed just one change to the team that drew at Juventus in the Champions league.
The withdrawal of Jan Vertonghen after the centre-back picked up a knock in training the day before the game meant Eric Dier slotted in alongside Davinson Sanchez in central defence in an otherwise familiar Spurs line-up.
By contrast, Hodgson's hand was forced by the absence of 12 senior players, leaving the Crystal Palace manager with few options.