Manchester City shook off the impact of a COVID outbreak in its ranks to outclass Chelsea 3-1 at Stamford Bridge and put itself firmly in the Premier League title mix on Sunday.
City manager Pep Guardiola had six players unavailable after positive tests but his team responded in scintillating fashion with goals by Ilkay Gundogan, Phil Foden and Kevin De Bruyne dismantling Chelsea in 16 first-half minutes.
City’s vintage display lifted it to fifth with 29 points, four behind joint leaders Liverpool and Manchester United having played one game less.
ADVERTISEMENT
Barcelona edged LaLiga’s basement club Huesca 1-0 on Sunday courtesy of a Frenkie de Jong goal made by Lionel Messi in the Argentine’s 500th league appearance for the club.
Earlier, Luis Suarez struck late to snatch a 2-1 victory for Atletico Madrid away to Alaves and send his side two points clear of Real Madrid at the top.
Bayern Munich returned from the two-week long Christmas break looking rusty before it fired on all cylinders as it fought back from two goals down to beat second-bottom Mainz 5-2 in a rip-roaring Bundesliga contest on Sunday.
ADVERTISEMENT
The result left Bayern on 33 points from 14 games.
Earlier, Borussia Dortmund broke back into the top four after goals from Manuel Akanji and England forward Jadon Sancho gave it a 2-0 home win over sixth-placed Wolfsburg.
The results:
Premier League: Chelsea 1 (Hudson-Odoi 90+2) lost to Manchester City 3 (Gundogan 18, Foden 21, De Bruyne 34).
LaLiga: Alaves 1 (Felipe 84-og) lost to Atletico Madrid 2 (Llorente 41, Suarez 90); Real Sociedad 1 (Barrentxea 46) drew with Osasuna 1 (Calleri 20), Eibar 2 (Gil 55, 76) bt Granada 0; Huesca 0 lost to Barcelona 1 (de Jong 27).
Serie A: Genoa 1 (Destro 58) drew with Lazio 1 (Immobile 15-pen); Atalanta 5 (Zapata 11, 49, Pessina 45, Gosens 57, Muriel 67) bt Sassuolo 1 (Chiriches 75); Roma 1 (Dzeko 72) bt Sampdoria 0; Cagliari 1 (Joao Pedro 60) lost to Napoli 4 (Zielinski 25, 62, Lozano 74, Insigne 86-pen); Spezia 0 lost to Hellas Verona 1 (Zaccagni 75); Fiorentina 0 drew with Bologna 0; Parma 0 lost to Torino 3 (Singo 8, Izzo 88, Gojak 90+5); Benevento 0 lost to AC Milan 2 (Kessie 15-pen, Leao 49); Juventus 4 (Ronaldo 31, 70, Chiesa 49, Dybala 90+3) bt Udinese 1 (Zeegelaar 90).
Bundesliga: Borussia Dortmund 2 (Akanji 66, Sancho 90+1) bt Wolfsburg 0; Bayern Munich 5 (Kimmich 50, Sane 55, Sule 70, Lewandowski 76-p, 83) bt Mainz 2 (Burkardt 32, Hack 44).