DUBAI: Liverpool completed their 119-day mission to displace Manchester City from atop the English Premier League.
It only lasted a matter of hours.
The status quo was ultimately maintained in what is promising to be another gripping fight for the title between the two giants from northwest England after both teams won on Saturday.
Liverpool were first up, beating Watford 2-0 to make it 10 straight victories in the league.
That meant City dropped out of first place for the first time since Dec. 4 — but not for long.
Pep Guardiola’s team kicked off barely 30 minutes later, at relegation-threatened Burnley, took the lead after five minutes and eased to a 2-0 victory.
Liverpool and City have games in the Champions League quarterfinals on Tuesday before what could yet be a decisive meeting at City’s Etihad Stadium five days later. One point will separate them heading into that potential title-decider, with seven more games each to play after that.
If third-place Chelsea had any faint ambitions of catching the top two, they were surely extinguished after conceding four second-half goals in a 4-1 home loss to London rival Brentford.
One of Brentford’s scorers at Stamford Bridge was Christian Eriksen, who netted the second for his first goal in the Premier League since returning from suffering a cardiac arrest at last year’s European Championship. He also scored in back-to-back games for Denmark over the international break.
Wolverhampton kept up their push for a finish in the European positions by beating Aston Villa 2-1 while Leeds drew 1-1 with Southampton and last-place Norwich held Brighton 0-0 and are now seven points from safety.