Manchester City brushed aside Burnley 5-0 on Saturday but Liverpool kept pace with the champions after Mohamed Salah rediscovered his scoring touch to fire his team to victory against lowly Huddersfield.
Earlier, Chelsea – who had been level with City and Liverpool before the weekend – needed a last-gasp equaliser to grab a point against Manchester United.
Tottenham moved into the top four after a 1-0 victory at West Ham, with Arsenal not in action until Monday.
Pep Guardiola’s side, who missed a late penalty which would have given them victory over Liverpool at Anfield earlier this month, made it seven wins from nine league games as Burnley goalkeeper Joe Hart endured a miserable return to his former club.
Sergio Aguero opened the scoring in the 17th minute before second-half goals rained in from Bernardo Silva, Fernandinho, Riyad Mahrez and Leroy Sane.
With the defending champions slipping ominously into gear, midfielder Kevin De Bruyne came on for just his second appearance of the season following a knee injury he suffered in August.
“After we scored the second goal and third it was much easier,” said Guardiola. “And of course it’s good news that Kevin De Bruyne is back…. The goals were so outstanding, beautiful, beautiful goals and three more points.”
The result leaves City with 26 goals already this season, even though that is fewer than the 30 they hit in the first nine games last year, it still puts them on schedule to beat the Premier League record 106 they totalled over the whole season, and Guardiola is urging his team to be even more ruthless.
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool were forced to tough it out against Huddersfield in the late game, with Salah scoring the only goal of the game midway through the first half.
Liverpool, gunning for a first top-flight title since 1990, are level with City on 23 points but trail their rivals on goal difference. Chelsea, in third, have 21 points – level with Tottenham.
All of the top three remain unbeaten.
In Saturday’s early game, Ross Barkley scored in the sixth minute of injury time at Stamford Bridge to level the match at 2-2 after Anthony Martial had scored twice in the second half to cancel out Antonio Rudiger’s opener.
It was a bitter blow for under-pressure United boss Jose Mourinho, returning to his former club after a poor start to the season and he lost his cool in emotional scenes in the final seconds.
Mourinho took exception to the celebrations of one of Chelsea’s backroom staff, Marco Ianni, who ran in front of the Portuguese on the touchline, as United were deprived of a desperately needed win.
But after the final whistle the United boss played down the incident, saying Ianni had apologised.
