Manchester City’s hopes of ending their long title drought suffered a fatal blow today as they succumbed to a 1-0 defeat against Arsenal at the Emirates. Arsenal were the dominant side for most of the game, hitting the woodwork thrice over the 90 minutes. But it required Mikel Arteta to provide the one moment of true quality as the Spaniard’s brilliant strike in the 86^th minute proved to be the difference between the two sides. Mario Balotelli, who deserved to be sent-off in the 1^st half, got the punishment he deserved late in the game as he picked his 2^nd yellow shortly after the goal to leave City down to 10-men. Man City are now eight points behind leaders Manchester United while Arsenal are back up to 3^rd spot.

Arsene Wenger chose to protect his left-wing by starting with Yossi Benayoun as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Aaron Ramsey were left on the bench. The rest of the side lined-up as expected, with Theo Walcott wide on the right and Tomas Rosicky pushing forward in support of Robin van Persie. Mikel Arteta and Alex Song controlled the centre of the park, ahead of a back four that had Thomas Vermaelen and Laurent Koscielny in the centre and Bacary Sagna and Kieran Gibbs on the wings.

Manchester United benefitted from a glaring refereeing mistake on their way to three points against Queens Park Rangers at Old Trafford on Sunday, with the league leaders opening up an eight-point lead over Manchester City with a 2-0 win. The goals came from Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes, the former converting a penalty after Shaun Derry was wrongly adjudged to have pulled Ashley Young inside the box, the QPR midfielder getting sent off in the process. Mark Hughes' side were however able to keep their heads above the drop zone despite the defeat, staying ahead of Wigan and Blackburn on goal difference.

While the hosts were expected to ease past QPR, Sir Alex Ferguson was in no mood to tinker with his squad selection, picking arguably his strongest eleven for Sunday's clash. Danny Welbeck started upfront for United in place of Javier Hernandez, with last week's goalscorer Ashley Young starting on the left. In-form Antonio Valencia continued on the other flank, with Paul Scholes and Michael Carrick playing in tandem in midfield. Their was no change to the back line with Rio Ferdinand fit to start, while Rafael da Silva again beat Phil Jones and Christ Smalling to a spot at right back.

The latest round of matches in the Premier League saw 14 teams go head to head on Saturday, with one match also held on Friday. The big guns including Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool and Newcastle were all in action, as were relegation contenders Bolton, Blackburn, Wolves and Wigan. Chelsea managed to secure a huge win at the last minute against Wigan, while Tottenham and Liverpool were both held to draws by Sunderland and Aston Villa respectively. Meanwhile, Blackburn and Bolton too suffered losses.

Chelsea 2-1 Wigan

Chelsea were looking to close in on the all important Champions League spot and managed to just about do it in the end against Wigan. It took all of 61 minutes for the Blues to take the lead as Branislav Ivanovic, who has made scoring a habit in recent times, found the back of the net.

For all of Sunderland's impressive recent goal-scoring record and Tottenham's attacking fluency, the Premier League encounter between the two turned out to be a match not to write home about, as they served up a rather bore-fest at the Stadium of Light that ended goalless. Devoid of any real chances in a game that Sunderland played with nine men behind the ball at all times, the draw saw Harry Redknapp's Spurs climb above Arsenal into third for the time being, while the Black Cats themselves moved above Liverpool into eighth with 42 points.

John O'Shea lost his battle against time to be fit for the clash, which meant that Matt Kilgallon played in tandem with Michael Turner at centre-half, with Jack Colback shifting into a left back role. Craig Gardner and Lee Cattermole made up the midfield partnership, leaving the in-form duo of James McClean and Seb Larsson to support frontmen Stephane Sessegnon and Nicklas Bendtner from the wings.

Chelsea reclaimed 5^th spot from Newcastle United after securing a narrow 2-1 win over Wigan Athletic at Stamford Bridge. Juan Mata scored a dramatic injury time winner for the Blues after Wigan equalized in the 82nd minute. The opener came in the 62^nd minute and it was a controversial one as Branislav Ivanovic was clearly offside when turning in Raul Meirelese’ cross. Despite huge protests from the Wigan players, the referee allowed the goal to stand as Wigan undeservedly fell behind. But the visitors did get the ball into the back of the net eight minutes from time as Mohamed Diame scored a screamer to level proceedings.

Wigan looked the likelier to get a winner, but Mata scored from close range in added time to maintain Chelsea's hopes of finishing in the Top Four. Wigan will feel hard done by after their four-match unbeaten run was snapped, but Chelsea won't care as they picked up back-to-back victories in the league for the first time since January.

A beleaguered Liverpool outfit were held to a draw yet again at Anfield, this time by Alex McLeish’s Aston Villa. The Reds completely outclassed the visitors, but their abject finishing let them down once again. Villa broke the deadlock after just 10 minutes through Chris Herd after an error by Pepe Reina’s replacement Alexander Doni. Liverpool missed a clear cut chance towards the end of first half, but there was cause for optimism on Merseyside when the Reds began the second half well.

However, it took them all of 82 minutes to breach Villa’s resilient defence, with Luis Suarez, who had earlier hit the post, heading home from close range. The equaliser though cam a little too late, and although the Reds came close on a couple of occasions late on, they couldn’t bag a winner. The draw sees Liverpool remain in 8^th place, a point behind Everton while Aston Villa too stayed in 15^th place, just six points ahead of 18^th placed Blackburn.