The match had been billed as a clash of two childhood friends in Sale's George Ford and fellow England fly-half Owen Farrell, who recently announced he would miss the Six Nations after deciding to take a break from international rugby "to prioritise his and his family's mental wellbeing".

But the fixture was about more than the two stand-offs, with northwest club Sale posting their 12th straight home league win thanks to tries from Agustin Creevy, Tom Roebuck and Luke Cowan-Dickie and seven points from the boot of Ford.

Sale are now four points clear at the top heading into the weekend's fixtures, with Sanderson saying: "There is a sense of relief, but I'm so happy the lads made good of their intentions against a really good Saracens side.

"I suppose it makes Christmas that bit sweeter for us -- we'll all enjoy our Christmas morning now."

Farrell kicked 10 points for Saracens but tries from Ivan van Zyl and Gareth Simpson were only enough for the London club to claim a losing bonus point as Saracens suffered successive Premiership defeats after going down to Northampton earlier this month.

"We knew it would be a difficult game away at a quality side like Sale," said Saracens chief Mark McCall.

"Having said that, I'm proud and pleased of the way we played throughout the 80 minutes.

"The players showed real energy and they kept fighting right until the end, and we almost clawed our way back to claim a victory.

"We're not too far away, we're getting there. We've got some really tough fixtures coming up, but also we've got a few players to come back into the reckoning over the next few weeks."

Bristol won 21-13 away to Newcastle in Friday's other Premiership match as the Falcons suffered a 12th straight defeat.