Chelsea were the only team to gain maximum points from their three games played over the festive period so far.
They followed up their 8-0 thrashing of Aston Villa with wins over Norwich and Everton.
Manchester United fought back from drawing with Swansea to stretch their lead over Manchester City to seven points, coming from behind to win 4-3 over Newcastle and beating West Brom 2-0.
City dropped points against Sunderland, losing 1-0, and came through tight games with Reading and Norwich 1-0 and 4-3 respectively.
In the Aviva Premiership, Saracens moved up to second in the table after narrowly defeating Northampton 17-16.
Sarries raced into an 11-0 lead but the visitors replied with a converted try of their own and would have won it had Stephen Meyler not missed a last-minute penalty.
They move to within a point of league leaders Harlequins who beat London Irish 26-15 at Twickenham.
Danny Care’s try sent them on their way and the boot of Nick Evans kept the scoreboard ticking over in what was a comfortable win.
Phil Taylor made it past Raymond van Barneveld despite the Dutchman’s attempt at a fightback in their BDO World Championships semi-final.
Taylor had raced into a 5-1 lead but he failed to be as clinical to close out the match, missing two doubles for the win.
Van Barneveld brought it back to 5-4 but Taylor finally won it 6-4 to set up a final against Dutchman Michael van Gerwen.
