A Premier League day of breathless action, sublime goals and world-class free-kicks… except, that was, from the two teams highest in the table beforehand.  Both Chelsea and Liverpool badly disappointed on a Saturday that, otherwise, did anything but. In virtually all of the other games, it proved one of the most entertaining Saturdays of the season.

Not for the big two though. Chelsea failed to score against a team who had previously conceded in every single game this season, giving Norwich their first cleansheet in 2011-12; Liverpool failed to pick a point against the team with the worst home record in all of English football.

Both indictments. Both uninspiring. And both seeing their expensive strikers provide unfortunately embarrassing moments.

After a lively enough start, Chelsea sound found an industrious Norwich difficult to break down. Eventually in the second half, the ball fell to Fernando Torres just yards from goal. Appearing to second-guess his every touch, however, the out-of-sorts striker dawdled rather than hit the ball immediately and eventually poked it pathetically wide. It proved Chelsea’s best chance.

Liverpool, meanwhile, were behind from the off against Bolton. And – typically given the day – it came partly from their own errors. Their defence parted to allow David N’Gog to set up mark Davies for a fine finish. Nigel Reo-Coker soon made it 2-0, only for his frequent sparring partner on the day, Craig Bellamy, to hit back. Liverpool, however, couldn’t build on that at all as, within minutes of the second half, David Wheater reasserted Bolton’s two-goal lead with a fine strike from a corner. With Liverpool simply offering no creativity or spark going forward, it remained that way. Owen Coyle’s side were contained, clinical and deserving winners.

That result also meant Bolton jumped out of the relegation zone. And, at the other end, it meant both of the big boys will have failed to capitalise on tomorrow’s face-offs between the rest of the top six (Manchester City-Tottenham; Arsenal-Manchester United).

But Liverpool may get some consolation from the fact Newcastle also failed to win. In fact, in one of a number of scintillating – and surprising – games, they were absolutely thrashed by a free-flowing Fulham. Danny Guthrie had given Alan Pardew’s side the lead with an absolutely sensational strike (arguably the goal of the season) only for Fulham to absolutely kill the game in a whirlwind 16 minutes. On 52 minutes, Damien Duff was brought down for a penalty, which Danny Murphy converted. By 68, Clint Dempsey had scored twice before Bobby Zamora converted a second penalty. And although Hatem Ben Arfa pulled one back for Newcastle with another Leo Messi inpression, Dempsey sealed his hat-trick and the thrashing by surging through to finish late on.

There were similar turnarounds at Molineux where Robbie Keane proved the hero in the midlands derby. Aston Villa had taken the lead early on through Darren Bent’s penalty only for Wolves to then go 2-1 ahead through Michael Kightly and David Edwards at the end of a period in which they absolutely pummeled Villa.

However, once Karl Henry was sent off for disgracefully kicking Marc Albrighton in the mid-riff, Keane took command. His equaliser came eight minutes after half-time and his winner four minutes from the end, with both of them proving beautiful strikes.

In the game between the two most upwardly-mobile sides in the division, meanwhile, Sunderland’s athleticism and home form proved more valuable than Swansea’s passing ability. Although Brendan Rodgers’s side had the better of the game and often troubled Sunderland, their poor away record hindered them again as they couldn’t find the cutting edge. That was no problem for Sunderland, though, who sealed the game with two supreme strikers. First Stephane Sessegnon curled one into the top corner from out wide after being set up by James McClean. Then, late on, Craig Gardner hit a storming volley past Michel Vorm.

At the Brittania, West Brom gave themselves an important push up the table after a series of results that resembled relegation form, eventually beating Stoke City 2-1 in a surprising game. Roy Hodgson’s side had been leading for most of the game through James Morrison’s early strike. Although Jon Walters missed a penalty, Cameron Jerome did hit what looked like an equaliser on the 86th minute, only for Graham Dorrans to then stun Stoke again.

There was some degree of movement below both sides, however, as Blackburn got a valuable point at Goodison Park when David Goodwillie equalised Tim Cahill’s early goal, his first in over a year. Despite the quality of both the result and the performance, however, it wasn’t enough to keep Blackburn out of the relegation zone because of Bolton’s good result.

At the same time, Mark Hughes got the first result of his QPR tenure and the club’s first since November by beating Wigan 3-1. Heidur Helguson’s penalty and Akos Buzsaky’s brilliant free-kick put the home side into the lead, with the former also missing another penalty after James McCarthy handballed. That might have propelled Wigan on since Hugo Rodallega also pulled one back, but Tommy Smith was on hand to kill off the game.