Champions Manchester City turned up the heat on their Premier League title rivals with a 5-1 home win over relegation-threatened Luton Town to move top of the table on Saturday.
With Arsenal and Liverpool both playing on Sunday, City marched above them with a rampant display to move to 73 points from 32 games. Arsenal (71) host fourth-placed Aston Villa while Liverpool (71) welcome Crystal Palace.
It was a statement win by City in their chase for an unprecedented fourth successive English title and more evidence that any team finishing above them will have to be near-perfect between now and the end of the season.
Tottenham Hotspur’s hopes of finishing fourth and ensuring a Champions League berth were dealt a blow as they were hammered 4-0 at Newcastle United who moved into sixth place to boost their own European hopes.
At the bottom Brentford eased away from trouble with a 2-0 home win against Sheffield United for whom time is running out.
Nottingham Forest missed the chance to do the same as they were held to a 2-2 draw at home by Wolverhampton Wanderers. Forest are in 17th place, one point above third-from bottom Luton Town and six ahead of 19th-placed Burnley who drew 1-1 at home to Brighton and Hove Albion.
Manchester United are away at Bournemouth later on Saturday, trying to reclaim sixth place from Newcastle.
City needed only 65 seconds to go ahead against Luton with Erling Haaland’s wayward volley smashing into the face of Luton’s Daiki Hashioka and into the net.
Luton hung in grimly but Mateo Kovacic’s strike made it 2-0 in the 64th minute before Haaland made it 3-0 from the penalty spot for his 20th league goal of the season.
Jeremy Doku and Josko Gvardiol were also on target for City, with Ross Barkley grabbing a consolation for Luton.
Kicking off early, Tottenham had the chance to move three points above Villa in the scrap for fourth place but were blown away by a clinical Newcastle side.
Newcastle struck twice in the space of two minutes in the first half with Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon punishing some poor defending by the visitors.
Isak made it 3-0 when he latched on to a long clearance early in the second half to take his league tally for the season to 17 and Fabian Schar added a fourth late on.
Tottenham dropped down to fifth below Villa on goal difference and with a tough run-in to come will have to dust themselves down quickly.
“Newcastle were good, credit to them, I thought they were really good today. We just didn’t really get a grip of the game at all,” Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou said.
Brentford moved up to 14th in the table as Thomas Frank’s side ended a winless run of nine Premier League games.
An own goal by Oliver Arblaster gave Brentford the lead in the 63rd minute and Frank Onyeka wrapped it up in stoppage time with his first goal for the club.
Matheus Cunha scored twice for Wolverhampton Wanderers in his first start for two months to deny Forest a vital three points in their bid to stay up.
Cunha gave Wolves a first-half lead with a superb solo goal, before the excellent Morgan Gibbs-White equalised on the stroke of halftime and Danilo put Forest in front before the hour-mark.
But a mistake by goalkeeper Matz Sels allowed Cunha to score his second and earn his side a point.
Burnley will also rue a missed opportunity as they were held by Brighton — an embarrassing own-goal by goalkeeper Arijanet Muric costing them the three points.
Substitute Josh Brownhill put the home side ahead in the 74th minute but Burnley’s joy was short-lived as Muric allowed a Sander Berge back pass to roll under his foot.
English Premier League results on Saturday:
Brentford 2 (Arblaster 63-og, Onyeka 90+3) Sheffield United 0
Burnley 1 (Brownhill 74) Brighton 1 (Muric 79-og)
Manchester City 5 (Hashioka 2-og, Kovacic 64, Haaland 76-pen, Doku 87, Gvardiol 90+3) Luton 1 (Barkley 81)
Newcastle 4 (Isak 30, 51, Gordon 32, Schar 87) Tottenham 0
Nottingham Forest 2 (Gibbs-White 45+1, Danilo 57) Wolves 2 (Cunha 40, 62)
AFC Bournemouth 2 (Solanke 16, Kluivert 26) Manchester United 2 Bruno Fernandes (31, 65)