Tim Howard made two standout saves as Manchester United opened up a three point lead at the top of the Premier League with a 2-1 victory at Bolton on Wednesday. Second place Arsenal was held 1-1 at Everton and Chelsea slipped back with a 1-0 loss at home to Liverpool.
Strikes by Paul Scholes and Ruud van Nistelrooy put the Reds in control at the Reebok Stadium and American 'keeper Howard kept out long range shots from Ivan Campo and Jay Jay Okocha. United now has 49 points from 20 games as it chases its ninth league title in 12 seasons.
"The defending has been a feature of our results this year and the goalkeeper keeps improving," said United manager Alex Ferguson. "We didn't expect him to perform the way he has been performing. The improvement he's shown has really struck us because we did feel that, at some point, he's going to need a break. But he's getting better and better."
Unbeaten Arsenal appeared well on course to stay within a point when Nigerian forward Nwankwo Kanu fired the Gunners ahead at Goodison Park. But the Toffees hit back with an equalizer from Canadian striker Tomasz Radzinski and Arsene Wenger's men are now three behind.
Bruno Cheyrou netted his first goal of the season as Liverpool ended a streak of seven Stamford Bridge losses in a row with a victory which moved Gerald Houllier's team up to fifth.
It was a third loss in five league games for Claudio Ranieri's expensively assembled team which is now seven points behind Manchester United at just past the halfway stage.
"I think today we lost but we didn't play so badly," Ranieri said. "Now we are becoming a team. In this period we have only only one way, to work hard."
In Wednesday's other games, fourth place Charlton gained a 1-1 tie at Manchester City, Newcastle edged next to last Leeds 1-0, Tottenham eased its relegation worries with a 4-1 beating of Birmingham City, last place Wolves held Blackburn 2-2, Middlesbrough edged Fulham 2-1 and Southampton-Leicester ended 0-0.
Scholes made it five goals in six games in the 24th minute as United gained its eighth win in a row. Wanderers' goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen did well to stop Van Nistelrooy scoring but the ball came clear to Scholes to prod home the rebound.
The same trio then combined in the 39th minute with Scholes beating the Wanderers offside trap, Giggs weaving round the 'keeper and lobbing the ball up for Van Nistelrooy to head into an empty net for his 17th of the season.
The points were already won by the time Youri Djorkaeff headed in a cross from Nigerian star Jay Jay Okocha with a minute to go.
"They were good results for us. It has been a good night's work," Ferguson said.
Cheyrou scored his second goal for the club in the 32nd minute after great work by Emile Heskey. The burly striker won the ball in the air and broke down the right before aiming a well-judged low cross for the Frenchman to steer home with his left foot.
Liverpool was forced to send on inexperienced goalkeeper Patrice Luzi for his Premier League debut for the injured Jerzy Dudek 13 minutes from the end, the Pole suffering an injury to a leg muscle. The 23-year-old Frenchman was beaten within a minute of entering the game as Adrian Mutu met a corner but headed against the near post.
Liverpool was down to 10 men three minutes from the end when Senegalese forward El Hadji Djouf was sent off for his second yellow card. But Houllier's men have now climbed four place in two weeks and had to shake off criticism from the shareholders at the club's annual general meeting on Monday.
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