Goals rained in for Manchester City and Manchester United but Juergen Klopp's first game in charge of Liverpool was solid rather than spectacular with his new side drawing 0-0 at Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Saturday.
Raheem Sterling's hat-trick and a brace for Wilfried Bony helped leaders City to a 5-1 home win against Bournemouth while a few miles down the motorway United got back to winning ways with a 3-0 thumping of Everton -- Wayne Rooney scoring United's third, his first away league goal for 11 months.
"It was a very good performance. We were disappointed about the Arsenal game (losing 3-0), and we know coming here is difficult, but it's a well-deserved victory and we're delighted," said Rooney, who now has 187 Premier League goals, second only to Alan Shearer with 260.
City lead second-placed United by two points with West Ham United a further two adrift.
Chelsea steadied the ship with a routine 2-0 home win against struggling Aston Villa, although they were helped by a poor goalkeeping error by Brad Guzan and Alan Hutton's own goal.
High-flying West Ham notched their fourth away win of the season, Manuel Lanzini and Dimitri Payet scoring late in a 3-1 victory at London rivals Crystal Palace who played half the match with 10 men after Dwight Gayle was red-carded.
West Ham's former manager Sam Allardyce's first game in charge of Sunderland ended in a dismal 1-0 defeat at West Bromwich Albion, leaving them second from bottom.
Southampton led 2-0 against Leicester City but were pegged back and drew 2-2.
In the evening's final game Arsenal moved up to second with a 3-0 win at Watford. Arsene Wenger's team carried on where they left off against United before the international break, although they did not hit their stride until the second half.
Their Chile winger Alexis Sanchez put them ahead after 62 minutes and further goals followed in quick succession from Olivier Giroud and Aaron Ramsey as Watford crumbled.