Mohamed Salah’s glaring penalty miss helped Bournemouth climb out of the relegation zone after an excellent win which damaged Liverpool’s chances of qualifying for next season’s Champions League.
The Reds were brought back down to earth after last week’s 7-0 thrashing of Manchester United as the Cherries, who started the weekend bottom, did their survival chances a power of good.
Liverpool were punished for poor defending when the unmarked Philip Billing struck from eight yards for his sixth Premier League goal of the season after fine work by Dango Ouattara.
Virgil van Dijk had a header cleared off the line at 0-0 and substitute Diogo Jota was denied by Neto’s fine save before Liverpool won a penalty when the Portugal forward’s header was handled by Adam Smith.
However, Chelsea’s mini-revival continued with a third victory in a row as they consigned struggling Leicester City to a fifth consecutive defeat.
Buoyed by their Champions League win over Borussia Dortmund, Chelsea started brightly and Ben Chilwell volleyed in from a tight angle against his old club.
Chelsea’s Joao Felix and Leicester’s Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall hit the woodwork in the space of two minutes, then Felix had a goal ruled out by the video assistant referee for offside.
Patson Daka rifled home an excellent equaliser after Ricardo Pereira won the ball off the dawdling Felix outside the box.
But Kai Havertz pounced six minutes into first-half injury time with an excellent dinked finish from Enzo Fernandez’s clever aerial ball.
Mykhailo Mudryk thought he had his first goal for the Blues after the break but his effort was disallowed for offside.
Kane broke the deadlock with a trademark header from Pedro Porro’s delivery before netting his 20th league goal of the season from the penalty spot following Joe Worrall’s foul on Richarlison.
The Brazil international – restored to the starting line-up after appearing to criticise Conte following Wednesday’s goalless draw with AC Milan – thought he had given Spurs the lead after just three minutes, but the video assistant referee disallowed the goal for offside.
Son Heung-min increased Spurs’ lead in the second half when he steered Richarlison’s cross into the bottom corner, before Worrall pulled a goal back for Forest with a powerful header.
Dwight McNeil’s goal after 35 seconds was enough to earn Everton a priceless victory over Brentford to move out of the Premier League relegation places.
The Toffees started the day in 18th place but capitalised on teams around them failing to win, leaping two points and three places above the drop zone.
McNeil’s delightful strike with the first attack of the game gave the hosts the perfect start, rasping a finish across goal, which nestled into the far corner.
