Sharjah and Al Ain laid down the gauntlet to fellow Arabian Gulf League pacesetters Al Jazira with impressive wins on Monday night.
The three clubs came into round 12 locked on 25 points at the top of the table, with only the Pride of Abu Dhabi playing on Tuesday.
In the early kick-off, Sharjah returned to winning ways with a dramatic 3-2 victory at struggling Al Wahda.
Uzbekistan midfielder Otabek Shukurov produced a fine first-time finish to open the scoring on 20 minutes. But the scores were levelled up soon after the break thanks to prolific Argentine hit man Sebastian Tagliabue’s close-range header.
The final five minutes would then see Sharjah go ahead through Welliton’s tap-in, Wahda midfielder Mohamed Al Hammadi repeat the trick with another rebound and the visitors claim it at the death through the aforementioned Brazilian striker’s one-on-one.
Meanwhile, Al Ain cruised to a 3-1 victory at Al Wasl that put the nosediving hosts just three points above the drop zone.
Sweden No9 Marcus Berg moved onto 10 top-flight goals for the season with his slotted 19th-minute opener and Brazilian Caio made it 2-0 shortly after the interval with a superb one-touch strike.
An own goal from UAE veteran Ismail Ahmed soon gave Wasl hope, only for Egypt midfielder Hussein El Shahat’s late strike to seal it.
In the day’s other game, bottom-placed Dibba Al Fujairah suffered a 10th league defeat of the season courtesy of promoted Ittihad Kalba’s 3-1 win.