On the weekend of King Charles's coronation, 20 Premier League teams served up a selection of enthralling contests fit for royalty, as goals flew in left, right and centre up and down the country.
Manchester City had briefly extended their lead at the summit to four points by seeing off Leeds United 2-1, before Arsenal fired a warning to the champions with a hard-earned 2-0 win over Newcastle United.
Manchester United could not take advantage of the Magpies' setback as they were stunned 1-0 by West Ham United, but Liverpool's end-of-season juggernaut rolled on with victory over Brentford by the same scoreline.
Tottenham Hotspur also kept their Champions League ambitions alive courtesy of a 1-0 triumph over Crystal Palace, while Frank Lampard belatedly pulled Chelsea out of their rut with a 3-1 win over Bournemouth.
Aston Villa's hopes of Europe suffered another painful blow in a 1-0 loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers, before Fulham and Leicester City kicked off an extraordinary Bank Holiday Monday at Craven Cottage, as the relegation-threatened Foxes went down 5-3.
Later that day, Everton produced a phenomenal display on the South Coast to thump Brighton & Hove Albion 5-1, before Nottingham Forest ran out 4-3 winners over Southampton in the basement battle.
Here, Sports Mole takes on the unenviable task of whittling down the weekend's best performances into an 11-man Team of the Week.
DEFENCE
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As much as Arsenal had Newcastle's profligacy in front of goal to thank for their successful revenge mission at St James' Park, the performance of Aaron Ramsdale in between the sticks did not go unnoticed either. The England international came up with five crucial saves - including a terrific reaction stop from Fabian Schar's point-blank header - to keep his 10th away clean sheet of the season, becoming only the third Premier League goalkeeper to ever do so.
Another stellar defensive display from a North London representative came at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where Cristian Romero responded to recent criticism in the perfect manner. Palace had a few bright sparks on the day, but Romero stood firm with eight clearances, five interceptions and three tackles in a marked improvement.
Over at Anfield, Liverpool also had plenty of defending to do to quell an inconsistent Brentford side, and Virgil van Dijk was largely up to the task. Despite being spun by Bryan Mbeumo for a goal that was ultimately disallowed, Van Dijk made 10 clearances, completed 91% of his passes and also headed the ball across goal for Mohamed Salah to score the winner.
Finally, Wolves boss Julen Lopetegui hailed hitting the 40-point mark with the West Midlands club as his "most important achievement" in football, thanks in no small part to Toti Gomes. The 24-year-old could hardly have picked a more ideal fixture to score his first Wolves goal, using his strength to head Ruben Neves's corner in off the crossbar in the ninth minute of their derby with Aston Villa, moving Lopetegui's men ever closer to safety.
MIDFIELD
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Producing two almost identical assists, Riyad Mahrez may have given Pep Guardiola food for thought in the Champions League with his playmaking masterclass against Leeds, picking out the run of Ilkay Gundogan twice for the German to fire home in the first half and giving Junior Firpo a torrid time all afternoon.
Gundogan's opening finish was an arrowed first-time strike into the bottom corner before he took a touch and picked out the opposite side of the goal, although he may no longer put his hand up for penalties when Guardiola is around. Despite hitting the post with a late spot kick to be denied a first-ever career hat-trick, Gundogan warrants a spot in our team regardless.
There was an abundance of two-goal midfielders in the weekend's enthralling action, as Fulham's Tom Cairney and Everton's Abdoulaye Doucoure both bagged braces for their respective sides, with the latter taking just 32 seconds to break the deadlock against Brighton on Monday. On the stroke of the half-hour mark, Doucoure doubled his tally for the afternoon, and the ex-Watford man also created two chances and made three tackles in an astonishing individual and collective performance.
In any other gameweek, Cairney would have sailed his way into the engine room, but the Fulham man is just edged out by West Ham's staunch skipper. If Sunday's win over Man United was Declan Rice's audition for a Champions League club, he passed with flying colours, as the 24-year-old dominated the midfield with four interceptions, two tackles and four successful dribbles from five attempts in a monstrous display.
Heading back down to the Amex, the weather may have been miserable, but Dwight McNeil was certainly not. Directly contributing to three of Everton's five goals on the day, McNeil fed Doucoure for his second of the afternoon before notching a second-half brace - celebrating before he had even scored a tap-in prior to a stunning late effort into the roof of the net.
ATTACK
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While Cairney can consider himself unfortunate not to force his way in, his fellow Cottager Willian will be living in the nightmares of Foxes fans - and Daniel Iversen - for weeks to come. The ex-Arsenal man opened the scoring on Monday in freakish circumstances, as his deep free kick evaded everyone before bouncing over a stranded Iversen into the back of the net, but there was nothing unorthodox about his second - a sublime 25-yard strike into the bottom corner.
A few hours after that eight-goal extravaganza, the net rippled seven times during Forest's encounter with Southampton, and twice from the feet of Taiwo Awoniyi. With 18 minutes gone, the Nigerian's first-time strike proved too hot for Alex McCarthy to handle, before he executed a wonderful volley on the turn in what could prove to be a priceless Tricky Trees triumph.
SPORTS MOLE'S PREMIER LEAGUE TEAM OF THE WEEK
Sports Mole's Premier League Team of the Week (3-5-2): Ramsdale; Romero, Van Dijk, Toti; Mahrez, Doucoure, Gundogan, Rice, McNeil; Willian, Awoniyi
Ben Knapton
