Liverpool, who traveled to Birmingham to face Aston Villa, also won (3-1) and moved up to 6th place.

The strike movements in certain public transport, on an unprecedented scale for several decades, did not prevent the Premier League stadiums from being full after a 40-day break due to the World Cup, with its traditional images of supporters wearing red Santa hats.

Newcastle wasted no time: after just seven minutes the northern English club were leading 2-0 thanks to another goal from Miguel Almiron, just four minutes after Chris opened the scoring from a penalty. Wood.

The Magpies increased the score by Joelinton (32nd, 3-0) and showed control until the end of the match.

Eddie Howe players have chained a tenth consecutive victory in all competitions, and have not lost a single meeting for four months.

This series allows the club bought last year by a consortium led by the Saudi sovereign fund to temporarily occupy 2nd place in the English Championship (33 pts), four points behind the leader, Arsenal, who face in the evening West Ham at the Emirates Stadium.

Manchester City, now 3rd with 32 pts, travels to Leeds on Wednesday.

Liverpool are still there

Left behind in the title race, Liverpool has not said its last word for one of the four qualifying places for the next Champions League.

By winning against Aston Villa (3-1), the Reds pile up a fourth victory in a row in the Premier League and go back to 6th place with 25 points, still twelve points from the Gunners but five points from Tottenham, which at this stage occupies the fourth and last qualifying place for the group stage of the C1.

Jürgen Klopp, the German coach of Liverpool congratulates his young defender Stefan Bajcetic, author of the third goal of the Reds' 3-1 victory against Aston Villa on December 26, 2022 against Birmingham © Oli SCARFF / AFP / Archives

Mohamed Salah made it easier for his teammates by scoring in the 5th minute.

Virgil Van Dijk rewarded the domination of the Reds half an hour later (37th, 0-2).

A good start to the second half suggested that Unai Emery's team could join Liverpool (Olly Watkins, 59th, 1-2) but Stefan Bajcetic consolidated the Reds' score (81st, 1-3).

Whistles for striker Kane

At the start of the afternoon, Tottenham suffered at Brentford (2-2) and owed their late-game start to Harry Kane, the unfortunate hero of the England team at the World Cup in Qatar.

Under the eyes of the usual Spurs captain Hugo Lloris, substitute, the formation of Antonio Conte was still trailing 2-0 with 25 minutes remaining in regulation time.

Vitaly Janelt (15th) and Ivan Toney (54th) took advantage of Tottenham's defensive errors, before Kane, whistled by part of the public for missing his penalty against France in the quarter-finals of the World Cup (2-1 defeat), does not give hope to the Spurs with a perfect header on a cross from another globalist, the Croatian Ivan Perisic (65th).

Tottenham star striker Harry Kane was one of the main architects of Spurs' 2-2 draw at Brentford on December 26, 2022 © Ben Stansall / AFP / Archives

The English center-forward scored his tenth goal in ten editions of "Boxing Day", a record in the history of the Premier League.

The Dane Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg equalized six minutes later (71st, 2-2), a goal synonymous with 4th place for the Spurs (30 pts), who are however more than ever under threat from Manchester United (5th, 26 points).

The formation of Conte confirms above all that it is only comfortable in the reaction: "This is the ninth game in a row where we concede the first goal", regretted the Italian coach.

"We have to think about this, find solutions."

This "Boxing Day" smiled on the away teams: in addition to Newcastle and Liverpool, Brighton won 3-1 at Southampton, as did Fulham at Crystal Palace (3-0) and Wolverhampton at Everton (2-1).

As a result, Wolverhampton gave up last place to Southampton.

© 2022 AFP