With his team top of the English Premier League, Jose Mourinho enjoyed bragging rights over Pep Guardiola in their long-standing rivalry as Tottenham Hotspur beat Manchester City 2-0
Goals from Heung-Min Son and substitute Giovani Lo Celso gave Spurs the win to leave City struggling in 11th.
Third-placed Leicester City can return to the summit with a win when they go to champions and fourth-placed Liverpool on Sunday.
"It feels good but maybe tomorrow we are second again and honestly that would not be a problem for me, I am just happy with the evolution," Tottenham manager Mourinho said.
"People cannot expect us to come here and after one season we are fighting for the title. We are not fighting for the title, we are just fighting to win every match...
"But no problem if Leicester wins (at Liverpool) and we are second again."
Chelsea defeated Newcastle United 2-0, a retaken second-half penalty from Bruno Fernandes gave Manchester United a 1-0 win over West Bromwich Albion while Aston Villa's slide continued as they lost 2-1 to Brighton & Hove Albion.
Son continued his rich scoring form as he found the net on 10 minutes and though City dominated possession, they could not find the goals they needed.
Aymeric Laporte thought he had equalised but VAR ruled out the goal for handball against Gabriel Jesus and Lo Celso came off the bench to wrap up the points for Spurs.
Spurs are two points above Chelsea and Leicester, and three ahead of Liverpool, while Man City have just 12 points from eight games.
"It could be better, we played similar to how have all season," City manager Pep Guardiola said.
"We had our chances, but we couldn't score and they made two or three chances on the counter attack and we lost the game."
Chelsea enjoyed a few hours on top after an own goal from Federico Fernandez and a Tammy Abraham strike gave them the points at Newcastle.
"We put the game away with a professional performance," Blues manager Frank Lampard said.
Man United moved above City and up to ninth after scraping a victory over third-bottom West Brom, their first home win in more than four months.
Bruno Fernandes scored the only goal with a retaken penalty after the Baggies had seen a penalty of their own overturned by VAR.
Socceroos goalkeeper Mat Ryan's Brighton picked up their first win since September with goals from Danny Welbeck and Solly March.
The Seagulls has to hold on when Tariq Lamptey was sent off for two quick yellow cards and Villa had a penalty overturned in injury time.
Brighton remain 16th but are now six points above the bottom three while Villa stay sixth.
Australian Associated Press
