Chelsea hammer hapless Stoke City while Mohamed Salah strikes twice as Liverpool sink Leicester

Chelsea move to second place in the Premier League table after putting five past Stoke City - although it may only be for a couple of hours with Manchester United in action against Southampton at home.

But the biggest story of the day unfolded at Vicarage Road where Swansea City came from a goal behind to beat Watford to give Carlos Carvalhal a priceless three points in his first game in charge; a result that lifts them off the foot of the table.

It has also been a good day for Bournemouth who have consigned Everton to their first defeat under Sam Allardyce with a win that lifts them out of the relegation zone and all the way up to 13th.

Full-time scores:

Liverpool 2-1 Leicester
Chelsea 3-0 Stoke City
Bournemouth 2-1 Everton
Watford 1-2 Swansea
Newcastle 0-0 Brighton
Huddersfield 0-0 Burnley

Full-time whistles are being blown, we'll have your confirmed final scores in a moment.

What a turnaround at Vicarage Road! Swansea mount forward and Dyer forces a shot on target that is parried straight into the path of Luciano Nursing who sweeps home what could be a huge winner for Swansea!

Goal! Watford 1-2 Swansea City (Luciano Nursing, 90)

Ryan Fraser puts Bournemouth in front! He cuts in from the left and takes a shot on that takes a huge deflection that fools Jordan Pickford and puts the Cherries within reach of three points.

Meanwhile at Stamford Bridge, Davide Zappacosta has made it five, racing onto a loose ball and firing past Butland.

Goal! Bournemouth 2-1 Everton (Ryan Fraser, 89)

Goal! Chelsea 5-0 Stoke City (Davide Zappaosta, 87)

Swansea have an equaliser five minutes from full-time! After Watford spurn a chance to put the game to bend, the away home side pounce on the counter, with Oli McBurnie knocking the ball down to Andre Ayew who taps home.

Goal! Watford 1-1 Swansea City (Andre Ayew, 85)

A chance for Bournemouth to take the lead against Everton! Jordon Ibe works a yard of space for himself and hammers an effort on goal but watches his shot come back off the bar.

Liverpool take the lead! And of course it is Mo Salah who has it, twisting and turning past his man after getting the ball from James Milner and firing past Schmeichel.

Goal! Liverpool 2-1 Leicester City (Mohamed Salah, 76)

Willian is brought down inside the box and the referee points to the penalty spot with the Brazilian taking up to take it. He makes no mistake, sending Butland the wrong way.

Goal! Chelsea 4-0 Stoke City (Willian, 73)

Looks like it is time for Alvaro Morata to be wrapped in cotton wool, Michy Batshuayi is preparing to come on for the final 20 minutes.

Sadio Mane has the ball in the back of the net for the second time this afternoon, but once again is judged to have been offside.

Butland once again saves Stoke from conceding again, producing another fine reaction save to thwart Morata.

Everton are level again! The returning Gueye is the man with the finish but it comes via a superb flick from Niasse.

Goal! Bournemouth 1-1 Everton (Idrissa Gueye, 55)

Sighs of relief from around Anfield; Liverpool have their equaliser and it is through Mohamed Salah, who pokes home after being set through via a neat back flick from Sadio Mane.

Goal! Liverpool 1-1 Leicester City (Mohamed Salah, 52)

Sadio Berahino gets in for what would be his first goal for Stoke, but Courtois denies him! Great stop from the Belgian to deny the Stoke forward who was clean through on goal.

Wayne Rooney is on for Everton at half-time with the Toffees chasing an equaliser.

And we are back underway across the country for the second half of the day's action.

Half-time scores:

Liverpool 0-1 Leicester
Chelsea 3-0 Stoke City
Bournemouth 1-0 Everton
Watford 1-0 Swansea
Newcastle 0-0 Brighton
Huddersfield 0-0 Burnley

Half-time whistles are beginning to blow up and down the country.

Stoke have one back! But it won't count. The former Manchester United forward raced in behind, picked out by Charlie Adam, but the forward is judged to have handled the ball in bringing it under control before producing a fine finish.

Bournemouth break the deadlock! On his first start after a frustrating spell on the sidelines, James McCarthy has made a big error here with his misplaced pass pounced upon the Cherries who race forward on the counter. Josh King lifts a cross into Ryan Fraser who finds the back of the net with a fine finish.

Goal! Bournemouth 1-0 Everton (Ryan Fraser, 33)

Ooof, Diouf is shown the first yellow card of the game at Stamford Bridge after a pretty ugly challenge on Morata.

Oh dear, Stoke. It is three for Chelsea inside 25 minutes and now Pedro is in on the act, taking a pass from Willian in his stride before jinking inside his man and firing into the bottom corner.

Goal! Chelsea 3-0 Stoke City (Pedro, 23)

Liverpool are now on top and Mohamed Salah should have just equalised after being beautifully picked out by Firmino. The Egyptian opens up his body to try and place it past Schmeichel but bends it away from the far post.

Liverpool have the ball in the back of the net through Sadio Mane but the flag is up for offside.

We've got a sneaking suspicion Stoke might be in big trouble this afternoon...

Stoke aren't just on the ropes here, they are almost falling through them. Morata almost makes it three, brilliantly sprung clear by Willian but his effort is well saved by Butland.

Watford break the deadlock at Vicarage Road! Despite a bright start from Swansea they are behind again and Fabianski might feel responsible. Richarlison breaks into space down the inside right channel and fires a cross/shot at the goalkeeper, who lifts the ball into the air without really clearing it. André Carrillo reacts first, getting to the ball and looping a header into the back of the net.

Goal! Watford 1-0 Swansea City (André Carrillo, 10)

What a stunning strike from Danny Drinkwater! Superb technique from the former Leicester man as he controls the ball on his knee before lashing a fierce volley with the outside of his right boot from 20 yards out past Butland who is rooted to the spot. This is going to be a long afternoon for Stoke.

Goal! Chelsea 2-0 Stoke City (Danny Drinkwater, 9)

Jamie Vardy is tormenting Liverpool again! He now has his seventh in his last five appearances against the Reds, capping a wonderful move after being picked out my Mahrez.

Stoke's resilience is broken inside two minutes! Chelsea win a free kick out on the right that Willian brilliantly whips into the box where Rudiger is able to rise unchallenged and plant a header past Jack Butland.

Goal! Chelsea 1-0 Stoke City (Antonio Rudiger, 2)

Goal! Liverpool 0-1 Leicester City (Jamie Vardy, 2)

And we are off and underway in our six 3pm kick-offs.

Just the one change for Watford, Stefano Okaka is back in the starting XI in place of Roberto Pereyra.

Carlos Carvalhal makes three changes to Swansea City in what is his first game in charge. There are recalls for Renato Sanches, Tammy Abraham and Sam Clucas with Wilfried Bony still ruled out with a hamstring problem.

Eddie Howe has named a side unchanged from the one that rescued a point against West Ham United on Boxing Day.

Sam Allardyce meanwhile makes four changes but one of them isn't Wayne Rooney. Having missed the last two games with the flu, he is only deemed fit enough for the bench. Phil Jagielka, Aaron Lennon, Idrissa Gueye and most surprisingly, James McCarthy come into the starting XI.

Jurgen Klopp makes five changes as he seeks to keep his squad fresh – the biggest of those sees Loris Karius start in goal ahead of Simon Mignolet. "[It is] rotation, simple as that, because we play today and we play again in 48 hours," Klopp has said before kick-off minutes after the team news was released, before 'Mignolet dropped' had the chance to start trending on Twitter.

Elsewhere, Sadio Mane returns after being rested against Swansea.

Claude Puel makes four changes to his Leicester City side this afternoon; Demarai Gray, Daniel Amartey, Christan Fuchs and Vicente Iborra all come back in with Aleksandar Dragovic, Ben Chilwell, Andy King and Shinji Okazaki all dropping out.

Mark Hughes has made six changes to his side with Josh Tymon coming in for his first starting appearance for the club with Saido Berahino, Radaman Sobhi, Charlie Adam, Ibrahim Afellay and Mame Biram Diouf joining him. Xherdan Shaqiri is among those to drop to the bench.

Antonio Conte makes just the three changes this afternoon but there are a couple of big calls in there with Cesc Fabregas and Eden Hazard dropping to the bench. Pedro and Willian come into the side with Danny Drinkwater replacing Tiemoue Bakayoko in midfield.

Stoke team to face Chelsea: Butland, Wimmer, Berahino, Tymon, Afellay, Adam, Diouf, Cameron, Fletcher, Ramadan, Edwards

Subs: Grant, Allen, Choupo-Mouting, Shaqiri, Crouch, Ngoy,

Chelsea team to face Stoke City: Courtois, Azpilicueta, Cahill, Rudiger, Moses, Kante, Drinkwater, Alonso, Willian, Morata, Pedro

Subs: Caballero, Christensen, Zappacosta, Fabregas, Bakayoko, Hazard, Batshuayi

BREAKING: Sadio Mane, Philippe Coutinho, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino all start for Liverpool this afternoon.

BREAKING: Eden Hazard starts on the bench for the Blues alongside Cesc Fabregas. Alvaro Morata leads the attack.

Much of the pre-match talk at Cobham this week inevitably centred on the futures of Thibaut Courtois and Eden Hazard. With the goalkeeper reportedly considering a return to Madrid where his family still reside and Eden Hazard turning down a contract offer from the Blues, Conte urged his club to resolve their respective futures as quickly as possible.

You are talking about two important players for us. It will be very important to continue with these type of players, especially for your ambition and if you are trying to compete for something important. It is important to strengthen your team and not to sell your best players.

Manchester United stumbling against Leicester City and Burnley means Chelsea can move ahead of them into second place with all three points this afternoon. United leapfrog them again later this evening when they take on Southampton at Old Trafford, however.

Mark Hughes would have plenty of reason to be a little pessimistic ahead of kick-off this afternoon but he was remarkably upbeat when speaking to the press earlier this week, suggesting he will turn to youth to help fill the void left by so many injuries.

We have a few problems. But our young players will have to come in and we'll have to try and find a way of being competitive.

"We'll have to stay in the game and then, at some stage, create some chances ourselves.

"It's a difficult fixture under any circumstance, and ideally you'd have your best eleven available.

"And when we played Chelsea at home (a 4-0 defeat in September), the same thing happened. We finished the game without a recognised centre-half. It's just the way it's fallen.

Chelsea cruised to a 4-0 win over Stoke at the Britannia Stadium earlier this season and with the Potters still struggling, will Antonio Conte be tempted to rest his big names this afternoon with Arsenal waiting for them on Wednesday? He has hinted that might be the case.

I think that tomorrow we have a difficult game against Stoke. As you remember last season in the same period we suffered a lot and we did struggle to beat them at home. I remember the game really well.

"We must pay great attention. I think we have to go game by game. It's normal when you play every three days, I have to make rotations and give rests to players that are playing every game. At the same time, all my players deserve credit and I trust all my players.

Team news: Stoke City

There is some positive news for Hughes today, however. For the first time in 599 days, Stephen Ireland has been named in Stoke's travelling squad and be in contention to make his return after recovering from a double leg fracture.

Team news: Stoke City

Mark Hughes has a defensive injury crisis on his hands this afternoon. Bruno Martins Indi, Erik Pieters and Ryan Shawcross are all out injured this afternoon; a problem exacerbated by the fact Kurt Zouma is ineligible to play against his parent club.

Team news: Chelsea

Andreas Christensen missed the 2-0 win over Brighton on Boxing Day through illness but is in line to return this afternoon.

Team news: Chelsea

The Blues have come through the busy festive period relatively unscathed – David Luiz and Charly Musonda are their only absentees this afternoon and will also not be ready in time for the visit to Arsenal later this week.

Antonio Conte otherwise has a fully fit squad to choose from, however.

With Manchester United stuttering over Christmas, Chelsea and Liverpool lie just one and four points respectively behind Jose Mourinho's side; by the time United kick-off this evening, they could be down to third.

It's another busy afternoon in the Premier League; the last one during the festive period before relative normality resumes. We will be across all six games this afternoon; team news on all of them is on its way.