Argentina's Hernan Crespo headed an 88th minute winner to give Chelsea a 2-1 victory at Middles-brough, while Juan Pablo Angel equalized in Aston Villa's 1-1 draw with Bolton Wanderers in the premier league on Sunday.
Colombian Angel, however, had a penalty saved four minutes from time by Bolton's Finnish goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen.
Chelsea, determined to make amends for their midweek home defeat by Besiktas of Turkey in the Champions League, stayed third in the standings.
The London club are one point behind leaders Arsenal and level with Manchester United, who both won on Saturday, and also have a game in hand.
Villa and Bolton are 13th and 15th respectively, both with eight points from eight games and 12 adrift of Arsenal.
Crespo scored his third goal in five games for Chelsea in English and European competition, rising to nod home from a tight angle after Damien Duff's cross to the far post.
The Argentine made up for a bad miss 11 minutes earlier when he robbed Boro captain Colin Cooper but shot straight at Mark Schwarzer, hitting the advancing keeper squarely in the face.
Man-of-the-match Duff also set up Chelsea's opening goal in the 17th minute for Iceland's Eidur Gudjohnsen, who fired a low shot inside Schwarzer's right hand post from the Ireland international's defense-splitting pass.
Chelsea had other first half chances when central defender John Terry headed Frank Lampard's free kick against the bar and Schwarzer had to dive sharply to his left to turn away Jesper Gronkjaer's shot.
Middlesbrough equalized through Szilard Nemeth virtually from the restart.
At Villa Park, Bolton took the lead 53 seconds into the second half when midfielder Kevin Nolan shot inside the far post from a headed pass by Kevin Davies, beating Dutch substitute keeper Stefan Postma who had yet to touch the ball after replacing injured Thomas Sorensen at the interval.
Angel equalized with his fourth league goal of the season when he shot from the edge of the box into the top right corner after the ball was laid off by midfielder Lee Hendrie.
Villa's Lloyd Samuel later hit the post with a volley from a corner before the penalty was awarded against Bolton's Spanish defender Ivan Campo for a foul on Angel.
Jaaskelainen dived to his left to push away the Colombian's spot kick.
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