Arsenal romped to a 4-1 victory over Middlesbrough on Saturday to go above Manchester United to the top of the Premier League, but only because of alphabetical order.
Arsenal and Manchester United, which hosts Newcastle today, have 49 points and identical goal differentials of 40-14.
Thierry Henry's penalty, an own goal by Boro defender Frank Queudrue, and strikes by Robert Pires and Fredrik Ljungberg put Arsenal in charge at Highbury before Maccarone was fouled by Gunners goalkeeper Jens Lehmann four minutes from the end and he struck home the penalty.
"I was very pleased. We had a great performance," said manager Arsene Wenger whose team hasn't been beaten in its 21 league games. "We created many chances. Until 4-0 after 75 minutes we were really very good today."
It was the first of four meetings in 18 days with the two teams facing each other home and away in the League Cup semifinal and also in the fourth round of the FA Cup. The Gunners also won 4-0 at Middlesbrough in the Premier League in August.
Third place Chelsea, which has seven points to make up on the co-leaders, is in action on Sunday at Leicester.
Next to last Leeds United remained deep in trouble after losing 1-0 at home to Tottenham with Robbie Keane scoring the only goal of the game against his former club.
"Leeds are in a terrible position," acting manager Eddie Gray said. "I don't think we showed enough confidence and courage to play today. I was disappointed with the performance from the word go."
Gray explained that he took Mark Viduka off at half time because the big Australian had a "personal problem" back home. "One of his family is ill and he's been up all night the last couple of nights and he's gone back to Australia."
Last place Wolves tumbled 2-0 at fourth place Charlton and is now seven points from the safety zone. Jason Euell celebrated his 100 appearance in Charlton's colors with both goals at The Valley.
Michael Owen returned to the Liverpool lineup as Gerard Houllier's fifth place team beat Aston Villa 1-0 to win for the third time in seven days.
Although Houllier's men dominated for long spells, the only goal was credited to Villa's Mark Delaney who deflected in a shot from Emile Heskey in the 36th minute.
Fulham remained sixth place by edging Everton 2-1 with Louis Saha, who has hit the headlines all week in England and France over a proposed move to Manchester United, scoring the first from the penalty spot.
Birmingham City came from behind to edge Southampton 2-1 to climb to eighth. After Brett Ormerod had puts Saints ahead in the sixth minute, Stephen Clemence leveled and Jeff Kenna scored the Blues winner against his former club.
Bolton won a 4-3 thriller at Blackburn from 3-1 down, the first Wanderers goal coming after 12 seconds from Kevin Nolan.
Vratislav Gresko, Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole put Rovers 3-1 up but Youri Djorkaeff, Stelios Giannakopoulos and Nolan fired past Brad Friedel for a Wanderers victory.
Portsmouth came from 2-1 down at home to beat Manchester City 4-2 and stretch City's winless run to 14 games.
City lost veteran England goalkeeper David Seaman with a shoulder injury after 12 minutes and his Danish replacement, Kevin Stuhr-Ellegaard, was beaten seven minutes later by Dejan Stefanovic.
Kevin Keegan's men hit back to take a 2-1 half time lead through Nicolas Anelka's 15th goal of the season and another by Antoine Sibierski. But two goals by Aiyegbeni Yakubu and another by veteran striker Teddy Sheringham earned Pompey a victory which pulls Harry Redknapp's team out of the relegation zone.
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