Arsenal's title ambitions suffered a double-blow on Sunday as a draw at Norwich was compounded by an injury to Alexis Sanchez.
The Gunners could have moved level on points with Barclays Premier League top two Manchester City and Leicester but they were held to a 1-1 draw by a battling home side.
Mesut Ozil opened the scoring only for Lewis Grabban to equalise before half-time and Arsene Wenger's afternoon went from bad to worse as Sanchez hobbled off with a hamstring problem.
The Gunners boss had already lost defender Laurent Koscielny early on but Sanchez will be a huge miss if he is out for any length of time - with Wenger having admitted the former Barcelona man had felt a "little hamstring alarm" after the midweek win over Dinamo Zagreb.
Norwich battled back from a slow start and deserved a share of the spoils, although Alex Neil will feel his side made enough clear chances to win the game and pull themselves further clear of those scrapping at the foot of the table.
James Milner's second-half penalty secured a first home league win for Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp as they edged past Swansea 1-0.
Barclays Prem
Tottenham 0 - 0 Chelsea
West Ham 1 - 1 W Brom
Liverpool 1 - 0 Swansea
Norwich 1 - 1 Arsenal
Leicester 1 - 1 Man Utd
S'land 2 - 0 Stoke
Man City 3 - 1 So'ton
A Villa 2 - 3 Watford
B'mouth 3 - 3 Everton
C Palace 5 - 1 Newcastle
Milner, who scored from the spot in the midweek Europa League win over Bordeaux, fired home in the 62nd-minute to end the wait for an Anfield Premier League victory which stretched back to September 26.
It was certainly not achieved via the "heavy metal" football Klopp has said he favours but sometimes just getting over the line brings its own rewards and occasionally winning ugly is no bad thing - especially when such occurrences have been so rare at home this season.
Victory took the Reds to within four points of a Champions League spot and six behind leaders Manchester City, whom they beat last weekend.
They have a favourable run of matches up until the visit of Arsenal in mid-January and if more good news were needed the returns of midfielder Jordan Henderson and Daniel Sturridge after long absences will add more strength in depth at a particularly busy time.
Barclays Prem
1 Man City 29
2 Leicester 29
3 Man Utd 28
4 Arsenal 27
5 Tottenham 25
6 Liverpool 23
7 C Palace 22
8 West Ham 22
9 Everton 21
10 So'ton 20
11 Watford 19
12 Stoke 19
13 W Brom 18
14 Chelsea 15
15 Swansea 14
16 Norwich 13
17 S'land 12
18 B'mouth 10
19 Newcastle 10
20 A Villa 5
Diego Costa was dropped as Chelsea and Tottenham played out a goalless draw which will do little to kick-start the champions' season.
Costa was an unused substitute as Jose Mourinho lost patience with the striker, but Chelsea's second away win of the season remained elusive as Tottenham extended their unbeaten run to 13 games.
Both sides had returned from lengthy European trips, with Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino describing the noon kick-off as a "joke" following Thursday night's 2,500-mile flight from Azerbaijan.
Fluency was lacking in an at-times scrappy contest which lacked moments of real quality.
Hugo Lloris made a fine save to deny Eden Hazard a first goal of the season after Son Heung-min had spurned the best opportunity of the first half following Harry Kane's cross.
Mourinho will be grateful for a fourth Premier League clean sheet of the season, particularly in the absence of captain John Terry (ankle) and at a venue where Chelsea lost 5-3 on New Year's Day.
That defeat drew Manchester City level with the Blues at the top of the table, but Chelsea won the title at a canter with a fine second half of the season.
Mourinho's men are now 14 points behind leaders City and need an unprecedented run just to break into the European places.
Spurs' unbeaten streak, since the opening-day loss at Manchester United, is their longest since a 14-match run between November 1984 and March 1985.
Rickie Lambert came off the bench to rescue a point for West Brom in a 1-1 draw against West Ham at Upton Park.
The striker had been on the pitch just five minutes as a half-time substitute when his shot deflected in off Hammers defender Winston Reid.
The fortuitous strike cancelled out a superb free-kick from Mauro Zarate which had given West Ham an early lead.
But the Hammers, now without a win in four games, will look back on a host of missed opportunities to stretch their advantage before Lambert pegged them back.
SATURDAY
Jamie Vardy set a new Premier League record of scoring in 11 consecutive matches, but Leicester lost top spot as they drew 1-1 with Manchester United.
Vardy's record-breaking moment came after 24 minutes when he raced onto Christian Fuchs' pass to slide the ball past United goalkeeper David De Gea for his 14th goal of the season.
Ironically, Vardy's goal removed the name of former United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy from the record books, the Dutchman having scored in 10 consecutive Premier League games in 2003.
Bastian Schweinsteiger then headed home his first United goal from a Daley Blind corner on the stroke of half-time.
United dominated possession throughout in a cagey contest, but Leicester came closest to grabbing the winner when De Gea denied Foxes substitute Leonardo Ulloa from point-blank range in the second half.
The result helped Manchester City return to the summit as they earlier claimed a 3-1 victory over Southampton at the Etihad Stadium.
City took advantage of the late kick-off between Leicester and Manchester United to reclaim the top spot they lost last week, even if it was only for a few hours.
England goalkeeper Joe Hart was missing with a hamstring injury sustained in the Champions League defeat at Juventus, but City were ahead when Raheem Sterling set up Kevin de Bruyne for a ninth-minute tap-in.
Fabian Delph doubled the advantage with a deflected 20th-minute shot, his first City goal since leaving Aston Villa in an £8million move last summer.
Southampton halved the deficit when Shane Long headed home Sadio Mane's cross soon after the interval and City's anxiety grew when star striker Sergio Aguero limped off midway through the second half.
But Aleksandar Kolarov fired home City's third after 69 minutes to secure the three points.
Bournemouth twice recovered from seemingly-lost causes to earn a dramatic 3-3 draw with Everton and rescue a vital point in their bid for survival.
Argentina defender Ramiro Funes Mori netted Everton's first set-piece goal of the season and Romelu Lukaku's 12th of the campaign gave Everton a 2-0 half-time lead.
But Adam Smith (80) and Junior Stanislas (87) levelled in a dramatic finale before Ross Barkley put Everton back ahead deep into stoppage time.
Stanislas, however, rescued a point for the Cherries with virtually the last touch of the match in the eighth minute of injury time.
Steve McClaren's difficult week ended in a 5-1 thrashing at Crystal Palace as Newcastle dropped into the relegation zone.
There were angry words on the Newcastle training ground this week following the 3-0 home defeat to Leicester, but it looked as if they had cleared the air when Papiss Cisse's first goal since the opening day of the season gave the visitors a 10th-minute lead.
But Newcastle boss McClaren could only look on in horror as Palace were 3-1 ahead by half-time with James McArthur (14), Yannick Bolasie (17) and Wilfried Zaha (41) putting the Eagles on their way to only a second win in six league games.
Bolasie punished more defensive slackness to volley home his second within two minutes of the restart and McArthur also scored his second late on as Eagles boss Alan Pardew savoured victory over his old club.
Sunderland moved above their local rivals and out of the bottom three with a 2-0 defeat of Stoke, the second successive win for Sam Allardyce's Black Cats.
Stoke defender Ryan Shawcross was sent off for a second bookable offence after 47 minutes but Sunderland had to wait to break the deadlock.
Patrick van Aanholt lashed them ahead after 82 minutes and Duncan Watmore latched on to a defensive error two minutes later to settle matters.
Bottom club Aston Villa's misery continued as they lost 3-2 at home to Watford.
Villa were without Jack Grealish, who had been dropped after enjoying a night out in the wake of the 4-0 defeat at Everton last weekend, and Odion Ighalo fired Watford into a 17th-minute lead.
Micah Richards' first Villa goal, a powerful header four minutes before the break, restored parity and Watford lost goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes to injury after the break.
But Villa defender Alan Hutton prodded into his own net and Troy Deeney added another to make Jordan Ayew's late effort irrelevant.