my liverpool fc

Weekend review

Gunners stay top but United keep pressure on

By Lewis Rutledge Last updated: 8th October 2007

Rooney: Back to form

Arsenal remain top after another enthralling weekend of Premier League action, but Manchester United appear to be in relentless pursuit and Chelsea are also back to winning ways.

Manchester United briefly climbed to the summit of the table for the first time this season as they thumped Wigan 4-0 at Old Trafford in the weekend's opening game.

Sir Alex Ferguson's side kept their sixth successive clean sheet in the Premier League and, ominously for their rivals, found something close to their best form in attack as they produced a rampant second-half performance.

Carlos Tevez opened the scoring and Cristiano Ronaldo bagged a brace before Wayne Rooney completed the rout with a late goal.

Aston Villa maintained their quietly impressive start to the season in Saturday's second and final game, as Craig Gardner's free-kick settled a tight encounter with West Ham.

Arsenal began proceedings on Sunday and notched their tenth win in a row in all competitions to go back above Manchester United, and still with a game in hand.

The Gunners were given an unexpected scare by Sunderland as Ross Wallace and Kenwyne Jones cancelled out Robin van Persie and Philippe Senderos' earlier efforts.

But Arsene Wenger insists his side have discovered a greater resilience this season and so it proved as Van Persie slotted home his second of the match to clinch all three points for The Gunners.

Manchester City kept the pressure on the top two with a convincing 3-1 victory over struggling Middlesbrough, with Elano once again the inspiration.

The Brazilian, undoubtedly one of the players of the season so far, followed up his spectacular goal from last weekend with two more sublime strikes from long-range, after a Chris Riggott own goal had given City an early lead.

Ben Hutchinson scored on his debut in the closing stages but it was mere consolation for Boro as they failed to win for a fourth game in succession.

Liverpool occupy fourth spot but their unbeaten start to the Premier League was under severe threat until the 90th minute against Tottenham.

Andrei Voronin had capitalised on a Paul Robinson mistake to give Liverpool a 1-0 lead, before Robbie Keane netted either side of half-time to put Spurs in charge.

It was left to Fernando Torres to secure a 2-2 draw for Liverpool as he headed home Steve Finnan's cross.

Portsmouth followed up their 7-4 demolition of Reading with an assured 2-0 victory at Fulham to move into fifth spot.

Benjani Mwaruwari broke the deadlock for Pompey to join Emmanuel Adebayor as leading scorer in the Premier League, before Hermann Hreidarsson combined with Niko Kranjcar to seal the win and leave Fulham in the bottom three.

Blackburn bounced back from their Uefa Cup elimination to beat Birmingham 2-1 at Ewood Park and go up to sixth.

Rovers had to survive an anxious last 20 minutes after Cameron Jerome scored for the visitors, but they held on to the advantage given to them by David Bentley and Benni McCarthy.

Chelsea remain outside the top six but showed glimpses of their battling best as they saw off Bolton 1-0 for Avram Grant's first Premier League win as manager.

Salomon Kalou struck the crucial blow just before half-time, Chelsea's first goal in the league since August.

Michael Owen returned from surgery to score for Newcastle in their 3-2 victory over Everton.

Andrew Johnson drew Everton level after Nicky Butt had opened the scoring, but Emre and Owen both found the target to make it 3-1 to The Magpies.

A Shay Given own goal gave Everton a glimmer of hope, but Newcastle clung on and to make matters worse for David Moyes, Johnson suffered an injury blow.

Kevin Doyle scored his first goal of the season as Reading piled more misery on Derby County with a 1-0 victory at The Madejski Stadium.