Manchester leads London at New Year

The year will end with Manchester United and City at the top of the table ahead of London teams Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham. Dimitar Berbatov scored both goals in United’s win over Sunderland at Old Trafford on Sunday and another goal 2 days later away to Birmingham who denied the league leaders all 3 points with a controversial late equaliser. Manchester City picked up 6 points with Tevez scoring twice in their 3-1 win at Newcastle and Balotelli scoring a hat-trick as they crushed Aston Villa 4-0 at Eastlands. Arsenal dropped a point in their 2-2 draw at ten-man Wigan but will fondly remember Monday evening and their 3-1 home victory over rivals Chelsea who returned to the Bridge to beat Bolton 1-0 in midweek.. Tottenham are only a point behind Chelsea after winning 2-1 at Aston Villa and defeating Newcastle 2-0 at White Hart Lane. In other matches during the holiday period West Ham eased their troubles at the foot of the table with a 3-1 win at Fulham and a point in their 1-1 home draw against Everton. Stoke returned from Blackburn with a 2-0 win only to fall to 2 early Baird goals at home to Fulham while Blackburn picked up the pieces to win 3-1 at West Brom who had earlier lost 2-0 at Bolton. DJ Campbell scored both goals as Blackpool won at Sunderland, and Wolves lost 2-1 at home to Wigan before earning a memorable 1-0 victory against Liverpool at Anfield.