Play over the holiday weekend was limited to England, the Netherlands and Scotland. At the halfway mark, AZ is first in the Netherlands after its 1-0 win over NEC. In Scotland, Celtic moved seven points ahead of archrival Rangers with a 1-0 win at Ibrox. (Neither of Rangers' Americans, DaMarcus Beasley and Maurice Edu, dressed for the Old Firm derby.)

ENGLAND
Premier League
Dec. 26
Stoke City 0 Manchester Utd. 1 (Tevez 83).
Portsmouth 1 (Belhadj 8) West Ham 4 (Collison 20, Cole 67, Bellamy 83).
Chelsea 2 (Drogba 3, Lampard 45) West Brom 0.
Tottenham 0 Fulham 0.
Wigan 2 (Taylor 29, Zaki pen. 73) Newcastle 1 (Guthrie pen. 88).
Sunderland 0 Blackburn 0.
Middlesbrough 0 Everton 1 (Cahill 50).
Manchester C. 5 (Caicedo 15, 27, Robinho 28, 36, Ireland 82) Hull City 1 (Fagan 80).
Liverpool 3 (Riera 26, Keane 53, 58) Bolton 0.
Aston Villa 2 (Barry pen. 65, Knight 90) Arsenal 2 (Denilson 40, Diaby 49).
Dec. 28
Newcastle 1 (Edgar 45) Liverpool 5 (Gerrard 31, 66 Hyypia 36, Babel 50, Alonso pen. 76).
West Brom 2 (Bednar 83, Beattie 90) Tottenham 0.
Everton 3 (Arteta 10, 27, Gosling 83) Sunderland 0.
Bolton 0 Wigan 1 (Zaki pen. 44).
Arsenal 1 (Gallas 81) Portsmouth 0.
West Ham 2 (Cole 51, Tristan 88) Stoke City 1 (Faye 1).
Fulham 2 (Dempsey 10, 89) Chelsea 2 (Lampard 50, 73).
Blackburn 2 (McCarthy 45, Roberts 84) Manchester C. 2 (Sturridge 88, Robinho 90).
Standings
TEAM W T L GF GA P
Liverpool 13 6 1 35 13 45
Chelsea 12 6 2 40 9 42
Man. Utd. 10 5 2 28 10 35
Arsenal 10 5 5 33 23 35
Aston Villa 10 5 4 32 22 35
Everton 9 5 6 27 25 32
Wigan 8 4 7 24 21 28
Hull City 7 6 6 28 36 27
Fulham 6 8 5 18 14 26
West Ham 7 4 9 24 28 25
Bolton 7 2 11 22 28 23
Portsmouth 6 5 9 21 33 23
Man. City 6 4 10 38 30 22
Newcastle 5 7 8 26 32 22
Sunderland 6 4 10 21 29 22
Tottenham 5 5 10 20 25 20
Middlesbrough 5 5 9 17 28 20
Stoke City 5 5 10 18 33 20
Blackburn 4 6 10 22 36 18
West Brom 5 3 12 16 35 18
Leading Scorers: 1. Anelka (Chelsea) 14 goals; 2. Robinho (Manchester C.) 11; 3. Zaki (Wigan) 10; 4. Agbonlahor (Aston Villa) 9.

NETHERLANDS
Eredivisie
Dec. 26-28
Feyenoord 3 (Biseswar 33, Fer 44, 62) NAC 1 (Amoah 86).
PSV 0 Twente 0.
Heracles 0 De Graafschap 0.
Willem II 3 (Van Eljden 3, Demouge 22, Swinkels 58) Sparta 2 (Knol pen. 40, Godee 54).
Vitesse 3 (Buttner 7, Kolk 26, Junker 82) Volendam 1 (Platje 53).
Ajax 3 (Cvitanich 7, 18, 57) Den Haag 0.
AZ 1 (Pelle 75) NEC 0.
Utrecht 3 (Van der Gun 22, Cziommer pen. 39, Loval 45) Roda 1 (Meeuwis pen. 58).
Groningen 2 (Gonzalo 53, Granqvist 90) Heerenveen 3 (Pranjic pen. 12, Smarason 77, Henrique 90).
Standings
TEAM W T L GF GA P
AZ 13 2 2 37 11 41
Ajax 12 2 3 41 17 38
Twente 10 4 3 33 16 34
PSV 9 3 5 30 17 30
NAC 9 2 6 26 25 29
Heerenveen 8 5 4 36 37 29
Groningen 8 2 7 36 24 26
NEC 7 5 5 25 18 26
Utrecht 7 4 6 23 21 25
Willem II 7 3 7 24 26 24
Heracles 5 5 7 17 26 20
Feyenoord 5 4 8 30 26 19
Sparta 5 3 9 30 41 18
ADO 4 3 10 19 26 15
Vitesse 3 6 8 15 30 15
Roda JC 3 5 9 21 34 14
De Graafschap 3 4 10 12 34 13
Volendam 3 2 12 19 45 11
Leading Scorers: 1. El Hamdaoui (AZ) 15 goals; 2. Berg (Groningen), Demouge (Willem II) 13; 4. Pranjic (Heerenveen), Amoah (NAC) 11.

SCOTLAND
Premier League
Dec. 27
Rangers 0 Celtic 1 (McDonald 58).
St. Mirren 1 (Dargo 79) Hamilton 0.
Aberdeen 1 (Miller 36) Hearts 0.
Dundee Utd. 1 (Robertson 21) Falkirk 0.
Hibernian 2 (Shiels pen. 36, pen. 40) Kilmarnock 4 (Invincible 5, 47, Russell 12, Hay 76).
Motherwell 3 (Porter 8, 39, 78) Inverness 2 (Tokely 44, Rooney 90).
Standings
TEAM W T L GF GA P
Celtic 16 2 2 45 18 50
Rangers 13 4 3 45 17 43
Dundee Utd. 9 7 4 28 20 34
Hearts 9 4 6 20 21 31
Aberdeen 9 3 7 23 19 30
Hibernian 7 5 8 26 28 26
Kilmarnock 8 1 10 20 25 25
St. Mirren 7 3 10 16 22 24
Motherwell 6 2 11 20 31 17
Falkirk 4 5 11 21 30 17
Inverness 5 2 13 20 34 17
Hamilton 5 2 13 17 36 17
Leading Scorers: 1. Boyd (Rangers) 16 goals; 2. Samaras (Celtic) 9; 3. Miller (Rangers), Porter (Motherwell) 7; 5.