Arsenal fended off a Chelsea fightback, while Paul Scholes and David Beckham rescued Manchester United in the Premier League on Wednesday.
Arsenal beat Chelsea 3-2 to keep its five point lead in the Premier League, while United recovered from a Juan Sebastian Veron own goal and rallied to beat struggling Sunderland 2-1.
The two heavyweights look set to battle it out for the title and Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is looking for back-to-back season wins.
``I'm very confident,'' he said. ``We know we can win the title but we want to find consistency back. In my opinion, the team is back on track, focused and ready for consistency again.''
In the late game, Newcastle beat Liverpool 1-0. A deflected Laurent Robert free-kick condemned Liverpool to its 10th consecutive game without a win -- its worst league run since 1954. Reds defender Salif Diao was sent off in the 66th minute for two yellow cards.
Arsenal leads with 46 points, followed by United (41 points), Chelsea and Newcastle (38) and Everton (36). One time season-leader Liverpool has 34 points.
Soggy pitches
Heavy rain affected matches throughout England. Two matches in London were postponed because of waterlogged pitches; Fulham vs. West Bromwich Albion at Loftus Road and Charlton vs. West Ham at The Valley. Three matches in the first division and seven in lower divisions were also called off.
A late lapse of concentration saw Arsenal concede two goals in two minutes. Chelsea started badly -- with a Marcel Desailly own goal in the ninth minute -- and despite sustained pressure in the closing stages, couldn't salvage a draw.
Arsenal was leading 1-0 with ten minutes to go. Then Giovanni van Bronckhorst scored in the 81st minute, with Thierry Henry adding another a minute later.
Chelsea pulled one back through Mario Stanic (85th minute) before former Gunner Emmanuel Petit took advantage of a David Seaman goalkeeping blunder to score the second (86).
Foot off gas
``At 3-0 we thought we were done and relaxed a little bit,'' Wenger said. ``We got quickly punished. It became very, very dangerous at the end.''
At Old Trafford, Scholes' late header capped off a fine fightback. After Veron headed the ball into his own net in the fifth minute, United made continual attacks on the Sunderland goal. But it took 76 minutes for Beckham to equalize, collecting a Rio Ferdinand lob to score.
Newcastle's night game was nearly called off because of heavy rain throughout the day and the home side adapted better to the sodden pitch.
Robert scored with a deflected free kick in the 13th minute which clipped Reds striker Milan Baros and dipped inside Chris Kirkland's left-hand post.
It was Newcastle's ninth consecutive home win. Liverpool was without England striker Michael Owen, who had a hamstring strain.
Everton's visit to Manchester City was unique as it was the first time two Chinese players -- midfielder Li Tie and defender Sun Jihai respectively -- have met in the Premier League and both set up goals in the 2-2 draw.
Sun crossed for Marc-Vivian Foe to put the club 2-1 ahead in the 82nd minute. But Li set up the equalizer in injury time, passing for Tomasz Radzinski to score.
City's Nicolas Anelka capitalized on a goalkeeping error to cancel out Steve Watson's opening goal.
Aston Villa moved away from the relegation zone with its win, but pushed Bolton closer to it. Dion Dublin and substitute Darius Vassell scored.
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