Steven Gerrard’s future at Liverpool may be in doubt but the captain turned back the clock to score in a 3-1 victory at bottom side Leicester City in the Premier League on Tuesday.
Manchester United maintained their recent improvement with a fourth successive league win, beating Stoke City 2-1 at Old Trafford with a Marouane Fellaini header and Juan Mata free kick either side of a Steven Nzonzi goal for Stoke.
David de Gea guaranteed that United held on to the points with two superb saves late in the game.
United stay fourth but now have 25 points, eight behind leaders Chelsea, who host Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday, while Liverpool have climbed to eighth place with 20 points.
West Ham United remain fifth, a point behind United, after a 2-1 win at West Bromwich Albion, who have now lost their last four matches. James Tomkins headed the winner for the in-form Hammers in first half stoppage time.
Liverpool captain Gerrard, 34, left out of the starting line-up on Saturday, was back in the team at Leicester where he rifled home a poor clearance from captain Wes Morgan to turn the balance of the match the Merseysiders’ way in the 54th minute.
They had fallen behind when Liverpool keeper Simon Mignolet conceded an own goal after 22 minutes before a 26th minute Adam Lallana equaliser for the visitors.
Leicester were reduced to 10 men when Morgan, who scored an own goal against QPR on Saturday, was sent off for a foul on Rickie Lambert after 63 minutes and they conceded a third when Jordan Henderson scored after 83 minutes.
Manchester United, who were without injured skipper Wayne Rooney, gave manager Louis van Gaal some encouragement with their win at Old Trafford. “I am very happy we held the result till the end,” said the Dutchman. “I am very happy with the result, that’s the fourth victory in the row and tomorrow we have our Christmas party.”
Villa stage Palace coup
In the bottom half of the table, Aston Villa earned three points for the first time since September with a 1-0 win at Crystal Palace where Christian Benteke’s goal ended a run of nine games without a victory for Paul Lambert’s side.
Queens Park Rangers crashed to a seventh successive away league defeat and slipped to one off the bottom when they were beaten 2-0 at Swansea City.
Burnley climbed out of the relegation zone when they stretched their unbeaten run to four matches with a 1-1 draw at home to mid-table Newcastle United.
Burnley have 12 points above Hull City and QPR on 11, with Leicester propping up the table with 10 points from 14 games.
Marseille’s lead under threat in Ligue 1
Jordan Ayew scored for Lorient against his former side Olympique de Marseille as the Ligue 1 leaders were held to a 1-1 draw on Tuesday.
The result left OM with 35 points from 16 games, two points ahead of Paris St Germain before their trip to Lille, for which Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be rested on Wednesday.
Marcelo Bielsa’s team opened the scoring through Dimitri Payet but Ayew levelled for Lorient before the break.
Marseille went ahead in the 32nd minute at the end of a sharp counter attack when Payet fired the ball into the far top corner from Florian Thauvin’s cross.
It took Lorient five minutes to level with Ghana international Ayew converting a penalty after Benjamin Jeannot had been brought down by Steve Mandanda. Marseille, despite dominating possession, struggled to threaten the Lorient defence.
Monaco, reduced to 10 men after Wallace was sent off in the 34th minute, beat strugglers RC Lens 2-0 thanks to a Dimitar Berbatov penalty and Yannick Ferreira Carrasco’s goal in the second half.
Monaco are eighth on 23 points while Lens stayed 18th on 14 points.
