Manchester United went top of the Premier League after a 4-0 romp at Sunderland on Wednesday with Arsenal and Chelsea dropping points.
Arsenal, who began the day in first place, were held 0-0 in a late kickoff at Portsmouth while third-placed Chelsea were involved in an astonishing 4-4 battle with Aston Villa.
Champions United were a class above hapless Sunderland, two goals from Louis Saha and one each by Wayne Rooney and the league's leading scorer Cristiano Ronaldo allowing them to go above Arsenal with 45 points at the season's halfway stage.
The holiday fireworks were at Stamford Bridge where Gareth Barry's last-gasp penalty gave 10-man Villa a deserved share of the spoils against a Chelsea side who had Ricardo Carvalho and Ashley Cole sent off.
Chelsea have 38 points, two more than Liverpool who went fourth after a late goal from captain Steven Gerrard earned a 2-1 victory at bottom club Derby County.  Everton stayed in touch with the top four by beating Bolton Wanderers 2-0 at Goodison Park.
A double from Andriy Shevchenko and a goal from Alex had turned around a 2-0 deficit to put Chelsea 3-2 up. In an action-packed final 20 minutes Martin Laursen made it 3-3, substitute Michael Ballack appeared to have sealed it for Chelsea with a sublime free kick before Cole was red-carded for handball and Barry drove in Villa's equaliser.
Villa had taken a deserved 2-0 lead with two goals from Shaun Maloney. But a battling Chelsea drew level and forged ahead, only to settle for a draw eventually.