Premier League Table: Week 15 Standings, Full Weekend Recap After Sunday's Score
It's nearly Christmas, and Leicester City are remarkably sitting atop the Premier League table, two points clear of second-placed Arsenal.
In Week 15, the overachieving Foxes once again claimed an impressive victory, with Riyad Mahrez netting a stunning hat-trick in a 3-0 win away at Swansea City.
Manchester City dropped off the top spot, as a rampant Stoke City beat them 2-0. Goal-shy Manchester United played out a 0-0 draw against West Ham United at Old Trafford.
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Read on for a full recap of the weekend's action—with Everton still to play Crystal Palace on Monday—and the updated standings in the Premier League.
| Home | Score | Away |
| Stoke City | 2-0 | Manchester City |
| Arsenal | 3-1 | Sunderland |
| Manchester United | 0-0 | West Ham United |
| Southampton | 1-1 | Aston Villa |
| Swansea City | 0-3 | Leicester City |
| Watford | 2-0 | Norwich City |
| West Bromwich Albion | 1-1 | Tottenham Hotspur |
| Chelsea | 0-1 | Bournemouth |
| Newcastle United | 2-0 | Liverpool |
| Everton | TBD | Crystal Palace |
| # | Team | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| 1 | Leicester City | 15 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 32 | 21 | 11 | 32 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 15 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 27 | 13 | 14 | 30 |
| 3 | Manchester City | 15 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 30 | 16 | 14 | 29 |
| 4 | Manchester United | 15 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 20 | 10 | 10 | 29 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 15 | 6 | 8 | 1 | 25 | 12 | 13 | 26 |
| 6 | West Ham United | 15 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 25 | 21 | 4 | 23 |
| 7 | Liverpool | 15 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 18 | 17 | 1 | 23 |
| 8 | Crystal Palace | 14 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 19 | 14 | 5 | 22 |
| 9 | Watford | 15 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 17 | 16 | 1 | 22 |
| 10 | Stoke City | 15 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 13 | 14 | -1 | 22 |
| 11 | Everton | 14 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 27 | 19 | 8 | 21 |
| 12 | Southampton | 15 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 21 | 18 | 3 | 21 |
| 13 | West Bromwich Albion | 15 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 14 | 19 | -5 | 19 |
| 14 | Chelsea | 15 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 17 | 24 | -7 | 15 |
| 15 | Swansea City | 15 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 14 | 22 | -8 | 14 |
| 16 | Norwich City | 15 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 17 | 27 | -10 | 13 |
| 17 | Bournemouth | 15 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 18 | 30 | -12 | 13 |
| 18 | Newcastle United | 15 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 16 | 30 | -14 | 13 |
| 19 | Sunderland | 15 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 17 | 29 | -12 | 12 |
| 20 | Aston Villa | 15 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 13 | 28 | -15 | 6 |
Sky Blues Stutter as Leicester Go Top
Manuel Pellegrini's City side were well and truly outplayed by Stoke in Saturday's early kick-off and could have been beaten more heavily.
The pacesetters and obvious title favourites at the beginning of the 2015-16 campaign, the Sky Blues have now won just once in their last four league matches.
They looked shaky at the back without captain Vincent Kompany, and Stoke's impressive forward trio of Xherdan Shaqiri, Marko Arnautovic and Bojan Krkic undid City.
Arnautovic scored both the Potters' goals, set up by Shaqiri, and Bojan was the outstanding player on the pitch, per the Manchester Evening News' James Robson:
Leicester took full advantage of City's defeat by turning over a poor Swansea side at the Liberty Stadium.
While Jamie Vardy could not extend his extraordinary goalscoring run to 12 matches in a row, Mahrez was on hand to take up the mantle with two early strikes and a third in the 67th minute.
The Red Devils, on the other hand, were not able to move up into second, as they recorded a fifth goalless draw in their last nine matches.
West Ham defended well at Old Trafford and could easily have snatched a win, and while United had numerous attempts, they barely ever troubled the opposition goal, per ESPN FC:
Arsenal jumped up into second place with a 3-1 victory over Sunderland, which halted a run of three matches without a win in the Premier League.
Joel Campbell netted first for the Gunners just after the half-hour mark before Olivier Giroud scored an own goal on the stroke of half-time.
The Frenchman then made up for his error by putting Arsenal ahead again just after the hour, and Aaron Ramsey put the icing on the cake with a third in stoppage time.
Sunday's sole match saw Liverpool fail in their attempt to close in on the top four, as they went down 2-0 to relegation-battling Newcastle United. A second-half Martin Skrtel own goal and a Georginio Wijnaldum strike wrapped up all three points for the Magpies at St James' Park.
Meanwhile, Bournemouth, another side near the bottom of the league standings, piled further misery on struggling Chelsea by beating the defending champions 1-0 at Stamford Bridge.
Glenn Murray netted in the 82nd minute for Eddie Howe's side, and Jose Mourinho's place as Chelsea boss has been thrown into further doubt with his side only two points clear of the drop zone, per StatsBomb.com's James Yorke:
Elsewhere, Tottenham Hotspur were held to a 1-1 draw at the Hawthorns by West Bromwich Albion. Dele Alli and James McClean netted the goals.
Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo were on target as Watford beat Norwich City 2-0, and bottom-of-the-table Aston Villa claimed a point against Southampton—Oriol Romeu found the equaliser after Joleon Lescott had scored the opener.
