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Arsenal beat Bolton to stay top

Arsenal remained top of the Premier League with a 2-0 win over Bolton on Saturday -- their 11th consecutive victory in all competitions.

Liverpool earned a 2-1 win over nine-man Everton, and Manchester United and Chelsea also won.

Manchester United beat nine-man Aston Villa 4-1 to stay second. Wayne Rooney scored two goals but missed a hat trick when Villa's backup goalkeeper Stuart Taylor saved his penalty kick.

"The performance was absolutely superb, probably our best of the season," Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson said.

Manchester City are third after a 1-0 win over Birmingham, while Didier Drogba scored for Chelsea in their 2-0 win over Middesbrough.

Also on Saturday, it was: Blackburn 4, Reading 2; Fulham 0, Derby 0; and Wigan 0, Portsmouth 2.

Arsenal have 25 points, followed by United with 23, City with 22 and Liverpool with 19.

Portsmouth, Blackburn and Chelsea are next, all on 18.

Villa went ahead with a 12th-minute header from Gabriel Agbonlahor, but it was downhill from there.

Rooney scored in his fifth successive game in the 36th minute. He added his second goal in the 44th after taking a pass from Carlos Tevez.

United went ahead 3-1 when Rio Ferdinand scored in the 45th.

It got worse for Villa in the second half -- Nigel Reo Coker was sent off in the 60th for two yellow cards and goalkeeper Scott Carson was shown the red card in the 66th minute for bringing down Tevez.

Rooney had his subsequent penalty kick saved by Taylor, who had come on as Villa's goalkeeper. Ryan Giggs scored United's fourth in the 75th.

Chelsea won three straight games for the first time this season at Middlesbrough.

Drogba put Chelsea ahead in the eighth minute after taking a pass from Frank Lampard.

The goal came two days after Drogba was quoted as saying that he wanted to leave Chelsea following last month's departure of coach Jose Mourinho. He later said he was committed to the club -- at least until the end of the season.

Defender Alex scored Chelsea's second goal, turning in a free kick by Lampard in the 57th.

Manchester City won their fourth consecutive game with a 1-0 win thanks to a 37th-minute goal from Elano.

Bolton had parted company with manager Sammy Lee on Wednesday and coaching coordinator Archie Knox began his time as temporary coach.

He fielded a strong defensive lineup against Arsenal that wasn't breached until the 68th minute when Kolo Toure scored with a long-range strike into the corner of the net.

Tomas Rosicky made it 2-0 in the 89th by turning in a cross from Theo Walcott.

"We built the success with patience, a high tempo and handling our nerves," Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said.

Blackburn went three goals up inside 32 minutes through Benni McCarthy, Roque Santa Cruz and Kerimoglu Tugay.

Reading pulled a goal back through Kevin Doyle in the 80th, before McCarthy converted an 82nd-minute penalty kick. Doyle then added Reading's second in the 90th.

Portsmouth won 2-0 at Wigan with late goals from Benjani Mwaruwari and Glen Johnson.

Mwaruwari scored in the 81st minute to head the Premier League goalscoring list with seven goals. In the 86th, Johnson hit a low shot past Wigan goalkeeper Chris Kirkland.

Fulham defender Paul Konchesky was sent off in the 45th minute for elbowing Derby striker Craig Fagan. The game ended 0-0, keeping both clubs in the relegation zone.
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