Man City maintain lead over Man Utd

Manchester City maintained their five-point lead over Manchester United at the top of the English Premier League on Saturday but Chelsea lost ground as they were stunned 5-3 at home by a resurgent Arsenal for whom Robin van Persie scored a hat-trick.City beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-1 thanks to goals from Edin Dzeko, Aleksandr Kolarov and Adam Johnson while Javier Hernandez scored the only goal as United clinched a 1-0 win at Everton to remain second.Chelsea, who twice let slip a one-goal lead in losing to Arsenal, remain third on goal difference from Newcastle but the Gunners are just three points behind their London rivals in seventh.Liverpool won 2-0 at West Bromwich Albion in the late match to go fifth, Charlie Adam and Andy Carroll scoring the goals in the first half.Wolves kept City at bay for more than 50 minutes at Eastlands but a mistake by goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey handed Dzeko an easy tap in and 15 minutes later, Kolarov made it 2-0.City were reduced to 10 men a quarter of an hour from time when Vincent Kompany pulled back Kevin Doyle and Stephen Hunt converted the penalty, but the home side extended their lead when Johnson scored a third late on."It was a difficult game,” City manager Roberto Mancini said. “You can have a lot of chances as we had today but if you don't score it's difficult. We deserved to score more goals, but I'm very proud of the last 25 minutes.United needed a 19th-minute goal from Hernandez to give them all three points at Everton, who hit the bar in the first half through Leighton Baines and who made life difficult for the visitors.Just six days after their 6-1 hammering at home by Manchester City, United enjoyed a welcome clean sheet, much to the delight of their manager."It's an important result to come away from home and win," United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said. "Everton is never an easy game and they put everything they could into the game."First half we played some fantastic football and scored a good goal. Hernandez is fantastic in the box. It's a good result and we worked hard for it."The real drama of the day came at Stamford Bridge, though, as Arsenal came away with a stunning victory inspired by a superb hat-trick from their captain Van Persie.The home side led twice through Frank Lampard (14) and John Terry (45) but Arsenal equalized twice through Van Persie (36) and Andre Santos (49).Theo Walcott then slammed in a brilliant solo goal to put Arsenal ahead on 55 minutes only for Juan Mata to pull Chelsea level with a superb strike 10 minutes from time.But Van Persie struck twice, first in the 85th minute to restore Arsenal's lead and then again two minutes into injury time to make it 27 league goals in 27 league games this calendar year and clinch a dramatic and well-deserved victory."It was fantastic to watch, both teams went for it," Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. "In the second half I felt we were completely dominating the game and created chance after chance."Overall we have shown quality and mental strength as well. To go 2-1 down and come out the way we did shows great resolve in the team. I thought we looked fragile in defence in the first half but we looked dangerous going forward."Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas said his side would have to pick themselves up immediately. "We must evolve," he said. "It's a loss against a big team picking up form, it's two defeats in a row and we have to get things right."Blackburn Rovers moved off the bottom of the table with a point at Norwich but two late goals denied them victory and secure a 3-3 draw for the home side.Fulham moved out of the relegation zone thanks to a 2-0 victory at Wigan Athletic, while Swansea climbed into the top half as they beat Bolton Wanderers 3-1 and a late equalizer from Stephane Sessegnon secured a point for Sunderland in a 2-2 draw against Aston Villa.