Liverpool's Brazilian midfielder Roberto Firmino celebrates scoring the opening goal during the English Premier League football match between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, on Jan 11, 2020. (GLYN KIRK / AFP)

LONDON - Liverpool maintained their incredible season, stretching their lead at the top of the Premier League and at the same time setting a new record for the best ever start to a campaign in the competition with a 1-0 win away to Jose Mourinho's Tottenham.

Roberto Firmino's 37th minute goal leaves Liverpool 16 points clear at the top of the table, taking them to 61 points from their first 21 games of the campaign. That is the highest ever points total for any of Europe's top five leagues (England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France) by this stage of the season.

The result is the most important thing. There was one team who deserved to win and that was us ... If it was easy to win here many more teams would do it

Jurgen Klopp, Coach, Liverpool

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"The result is the most important thing. There was one team who deserved to win and that was us ... If it was easy to win here many more teams would do it," commented Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp after the game.

A good day for Liverpool was made even better when Leicester City were beaten 2-1 at home to Southampton, who continue to climb the table with four wins and a draw in their last five games.

Things got off to a good start for Leicester when Dennis Praet put them ahead in the 14th minute, but Stuart Armstrong's deflected effort levelled the score and Danny Ings, who had hit the crossbar twice earlier in the game, scored the winning goal for the visitors in the 81st minute.

Leicester thought they had snatched a late equalizer through Jonny Evans, but the VAR ruled his effort out for a tight offside call.

Chelsea got back to winning ways with Jorginho, Tammy Abraham and Callum Hudson-Odoi all on the scoresheet in their 3-0 home win against Burnley, which ended a run of two Premier League home games without a goal for Frank Lampard's side.

Marcos Rashford scored twice on his 200th appearance for the club and further goals from Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood helped Manchester United to a morale boosting 4-0 win at home to bottom of the table Norwich City.

Everton recovered from their painful FA Cup exit to a team made up of Liverpool youngsters last weekend and continued their league improvement under Carlo Ancelotti, as a stunning 36th minute solo goal from Richarlison gave them all three points at home to Brighton, who nearly snatched a late equalizer through Glenn Murray with 10 minutes left in the game.

Lift off is still not happening for Arsenal under Mikel Arteta as they were held to a 1-1 draw away to Crystal Palace, after Arsenal's goal-scorer and captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was sent off in the 67th minute.

Jordan Ayew's deflected shot saw the points shared, although Arteta can be happy that the 16-pass build up to Aubameyang's goal showed his side is on the right track in many ways.

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Miguel Almiron and Leander Dendoncker scored as Newcastle United took a valuable point from their visit to Wolves, but Newcastle coach Steve Bruce will be frustrated at seeing Dwight Gayle and Paul Dummet added to his side's already lengthy injury list.

Finally, Sheffield United's wonderful return to the Premier League continued on Friday night with Oli McBurnie's 57th minute goal giving them all three points, although here was late drama after VAR ruled out what would have been a late goal for Robert Snodgrass for handball from Declan Rice.