Arsenal shrugged off the loss of four suspended players to score a 3-0 victory at Birmingham City on Saturday and stay top after a Premier League record unbeaten start of 13 games.
Fredrik Ljungberg scored after three minutes and late strikes by Dennis Bergkamp and Robert Pires ensure all three points for the Gunners who were without Patrick Vieira, Lauren, Martin Keown and Ray Parlour. They were suspended for their misbehavior at the end of a 0-0 tie at Manchester United in September.
Chelsea remained second after a 1-0 victory at Southampton where Dutch defender Mario Melchiot scored a rare goal while defending champion Manchester United edged Blackburn 2-1 to stay third.
Three days after his hat-trick steered the Dutch into the European Championship finals, United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy netted the first against Blackburn.
A record Premier League crowd of 67,748 saw the Dutchman fire the Reds ahead in the 24th minute and Brazilian World Cup star Kleberson add a second just before half time for his first goal in a Reds shirt.
Australian midfielder Brett Emerton gave United a nervous second half with a 62nd minute strike but Rovers wound up the loser for the sixth time in seven games while the Reds made it six wins in seven.
The result also gave Tim Howard the edge over Brad Friedel in the matchup of two American goalkeepers.
Rovers manager Graeme Souness, whose team finished sixth last season and had 15 shutouts, blamed the loss on more defense errors.
The results mean that the Gunners remain top with 33 points from 13 games, Chelsea has 32 and Manchester United 31. The gap to fourth place Charlton is now nine points so that the title race appears down to the top three.
A late and disputed Paolo Di Canio penalty gained Charlton a 1-1 tie at Leicester and Leeds United's woes continued with a 2-0 loss at home to Bolton.
Two goals in two minutes by Kevin Davies and Stelios Giannakopoulos earned Wanderers a fourth shutout in a row and Leeds, which fired manager Peter Reid last week, is last with just eight points from 13 games.
Next to last Wolves -- 10 points -- tumbled 2-0 at Everton which climbed out of the bottom three to 14th place. Canadian striker Tomasz Radzinski scored for the Toffees in the 16th and Irish winger Kevin Kilbane added the second three minutes later.
Scottish league
Chris Sutton scored a hat-trick and Henrik Larsson added the other two as leader Celtic romped to a 5-1 victory at Dundee United on Saturday to remain five points clear in the Scottish Premier League.
Danish forward Peter Lovenkrands netted twice in the last two minutes as defending champion Rangers gained a 3-0 beating of Aberdeen at Ibrox Park to make sure the lead didn't become eight points.
Celtic manager Martin O'Neill, whose side faces Bayern Munich in Champions League action tomorrow, decided to team Sutton with Larsson in attack at Tannadice and leave Welsh international John Hartson on the bench.
Larsson headed home Stilian Petrov's corner in the 52nd, Sutton added the third four minutes later after United goalkeeper Paul Gallacher had fumbled Larsson's lob and the Swedish striker fired the fourth into the top corner in the 58th.
Dundee United hit back in the 76th minute when Jim McIntyre punished a mistake by Didier Agathe to fire past Rab Douglas. But Sutton won a penalty after a clumsy challenge from Alan Archibald and complete his hat-trick by firing home the spot kick.
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