Gunners slip

Chelsea remain top of the league despite losing 1-0 at Birmingham as Arsenal let a 2 goal lead slip to end up losing at home 3-2 to local rivals Tottenham, but Manchester United are hot on their heels in 2nd place after beating 9 man Wigan 2-0 at Old Trafford. The inconsistent Newcastle United were battered 5-1 at Bolton while West Bromwich Albion lost 3-0 at home to Stoke and West Ham lost by the same scoreline at Liverpool. Wolves lost 2-1 at Blackpool while Morten Gamst Pedersen scored both goals for Blackburn to send Aston Villa home empty handed and Manchester City outclassed Fulham 4-1 at Craven Cottage with Tevez grabbing a brace. On Monday a Danny Welbeck double gave sunderland a point against visiting Everton.
In Spain a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick helped Real Madrid sweep Atletic de Bilbao aside 5-1 at the Bernabeu while Barcelona annihilated Almeria 8-0 with Lionel Messi scoring an away hat-trick in the process.
In the Champions League Arsenal fell to 2 late Matheus goals, but there was better news for the other English teams with Tottenham affording a missed Bale penalty in their 3-0 home win over Werder Bremen and Chelsea scraping 2-1 past Zilina at the Bridge, and Rooney making the difference from the spot for Manchester United at Glasgow Rangers. Real Madrid mauled Ajax 4-0 in Amsterdam but there could be repercussions if their 2 late dismissals for time wasting are adjudged to have been deliberate. Mario Gomez scored twice for Bayern Munich but Roma delighted their home crowd with 3 goals in the 2nd half, and Hapoel celebrated a 3-0 victory over Benfica in Israel while Turkish outfit Bursaspor were hammered 6-1 at Valencia.

Black Cats lick Chelsea at the Bridge

Having recently parted company with assistant coach Ray Wilkins, Chelsea suffered a shock 3-0 home defeat to Sunderland but remain at the top of the Premier League table 2 points ahead of Arsenal who won 2-1 at Everton while Manchester United fought back from 2 down with 2 late goals to picked up a point at Aston Villa. Gareth Bale scored twice for Tottenham as they put 4 past Blackburn Rovers before the visitors earned some respect with 2 late goals, and Wolves failed to come back from 3 down against Bolton as they could only treat their home fans to 2 goals, while the matches between West Ham and Blackpool, Newcastle and Fulham, and Manchester City and Birmingham failed to produce a single goal. Liverpool lost 2-0 at Stoke and WBA fell to a single goal at Wigan.

No real winners

Blackburn Rovers were the only team to emerge from the weekend and midweek fixtures with 6 points having picked up 2-1 wins at home to Wigan and away to Newcastle who had shocked Arsenal 1-0 at the Emirates. The Gunners picked up the pieces with a 2-0 victory thanks to first and last minute goals by Chamakh at Wolves who had fallen to another two-goal hero Park Ji Sung in their 2-1 loss at Manchester United. Chelsea lost 2-0 at Liverpool with Fernando Torres netting a double and adding another on Wednesday as the Reds could only manage a 1-1 draw at Wigan while Chelsea returned to the Bridge to beat Fulham 1-0 with an Essien goal before his late dismissal. Asamoah Gyan was also among the goals, scoring twice for Sunderland in their 2-0 home win against Stoke before earning a 1-1 draw for the Black Cats at Tottenham who had earlier lost 4-2 at Bolton. West Ham drew 2-2 at Birmingham and at home to West Brom, while Everton earned the same result at Blackpool before drawing 1-1 at home to Bolton. Aston Villa drew 1-1 at Fulham before returning home to defeat Blackpool 3-2, and there was a 3-2 win for Stoke at home to Birmingham. Manchester City won 2-0 at West Bromwich Albion before playing out a goalless draw at home to their local rivals United.

Top two win late

Chelsea came from behind to grab a late 2-1 winner at Blackburn while Arsenal left it late to break the deadlock at home to West Ham, and a controversial Nani goal at Old Trafford sealed a 2-0 win for Manchester United against Tottenham. Manchester City disappointed their travelling fans, losing 2-1 at Wolverhampton while Clint Dempsey scored both goals in Fulham’s home win over Wigan. Aston Villa and Birmingham drew 0-0 and Liverpool picked up 3 points with a late goal at Bolton while a Kevin Nolan hat-trick and 2 from Shola Ameobi saw Newcastle hammer their local rivals Sunderland 5-1 at St James’ Park, and on Monday evening Blackpool struggled to beat nine-man West Brom 2-1 at Bloomfield Road.
In the Champions League Tottenham defeated visiting champions Inter 3-1 while Manchester United were 3-0 winners at Bursaspor and Chelsea cruised past Spartak Moscow 4-1 at Stamford Bridge, but Arsenal lost 2-1 at Shakhtar Donetsk with Eduardo netting the winner. Real Madrid salvaged a 2-2 draw with a last minute goal at AC Milan while Marseille slaughtered Zilina 7-0 in Slovakia and Ajax lost 2-1 away to Auxerre.
In the Europa Leage Steven Gerrard rescued Liverpool with 3 goals in the last 15 minutes at Anfield to give the Reds a 3-1 victory over Napoli while Manchester City fell by the same result at Lech Poznan,