As the season enters the crucial Christmas period, the race for the Premiership title hots up with Manchester United closing the gap on champions Arsenal to just the one point following the two clubs respective results on Saturday and Sunday.

United put pressure on their great rivals by easily seeing off the challenge of a struggling West Ham United side at Old Trafford in a midday kick-off on Saturday, winning 3-0 thanks to goals from Ole Gunnar Solskjær, a well-executed Juan Sebastián Verón free-kick and a Sebastian Schemmel own goal.

That result left Glenn Roeder and West Ham sitting at the foot of the table and facing a difficult few weeks ahead.

Arsenal's response to United drawing level on points with them at the top of the league was to eek out a hard-fought point at the home of their north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur 24 hours later, but they were grateful to Robert Pires whose penalty just before half-time cancelled out Spurs' eleventh-minute opener from Christian Ziege.

Chelsea continue to keep pace with the leading duo after yet another impressive result away from home, this time coming from behind to have the better of a 1-1 draw at Middlesbrough thanks to England Under-21 international John Terry's goal, but for Liverpool, a fourth straight league defeat, 2-1 at Sunderland yesterday, means the team that led the Premiership at the start of November have taken just one point from their last six games, the clubs worst run in 19 years.

And, the result could have been worse but for a penalty save from England Under-21 goalkeeper Chris Kirkland. For Sunderland though, their supporters were delighted to see their side score for the first time in more than eight hours of football when Gavin McCann put them ahead after 36 minutes and the win was their first over Liverpool on Wearside since 1958.

Moving above Gérard Houllier's team and into fourth place are Everton, who they meet next Sunday, following David Moyes's side 2-1 victory over Blackburn Rovers at Goodison Park.

 
The two teams were level until a moment of brilliance from an England star of the future, Wayne Rooney, whose sudden burst of acceleration left two visiting defenders in his wake before he coolly shot low past the Premiership's most in-form goalkeeper Brad Friedel.

And it had to be something special to take the attention away from Andrew Cole, who scored his 150th Premiership goal earlier in the game.

In the battle of the England strikers past and present taking place on the south coast, it was a Welshman and a man who has never represented his country that stole the headlines, Craig Bellamy's breathtaking goal being immediately followed by a far simpler effort from the unsung Chris Marsden.

Elsewhere, ten-man Birmingham clung on for a vital away win at Fulham thanks to American Jovan Kirovski's goal on his full league debut for the club, while Aston Villa won the Midlands derby with a last-minute goal from the ever-improving German midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger, yet another in his already impressive collection of long-range strikes in recent weeks. 

Manchester City came from two goals down with 17 minutes left at the Valley to draw 2-2 with Charlton, Marc-Vivien Foe scoring twice.

Portsmouth's lead at the top of the First Division has also been cut, to five points, with Harry Redknapp's side needing a late goal from Jason Crowe to draw 1-1 at third from bottom Stoke after Bjarni Gunnarsson had given the home side a half-time lead.

 

Second-placed Leicester made no such mistakes at their intimidating Walkers Stadium, crushing Millwall 4-l after old boy Steve Claridge had given the visitors a first-minute lead, although the match itself was overshadowed by the return of former Leicester player Dennis Wise and coach Mark McGhee.

And for a second successive weekend Sheffield United were the only side in the play-off places to record a victory, 2-0 at fellow promotion hopefuls Reading, the first time that the Royals had conceded a League goal since 26th October.

Nottingham Forest lost again, at Bradford, meaning that the Bantams avoided a club record eight defeats in a row thanks to Richard Molenaar's solitary strike and Norwich went down 2-0 to Crystal Palace.

However for bottom-of-the-table Sheffield Wednesday things could not get any worse as new manager Chris Turner watched his side go a ninth match without a victory on Saturday, Gillingham winning 2-0 at Hillsbrough for the very first time in their history.

That result leaves the club level on points with Brighton, who also lost, 1-0 at Derby, but with an inferior goal difference.

Also in trouble are Grimsby, who had Alan Pouton sent off as they lost 3-0 at Preston, with David Healy among the scorers for Craig Brown's side, although there were morale-boosting wins for Joe Royle's Ipswich over Watford, Walsall over Wimbledon and for Gary McAllister's Coventry, who ended a ten-match unbeaten run by Wolves by winning at Molineux for the first time in 22 years and the manager himself was among the scorers in a 2-0 win.

And finally, Rotherham continued to score at will on their travels, this time hitting Burnley for six to move up to eighth in the table.

 

The race to gain automatic promotion to Division One had a twist in it on Saturday when the top four all met and it was Bristol City who moved above Cardiff and into second with an impressive 2-0 win at Ninian Park, while leaders Wigan also won a massive game, 2-0 at ten-man Oldham, to go three points clear thanks to goals from Nathan Ellington and Jason De Vos.

Fifth-placed Crewe beat Barnsley 2-0 to stay in touch with the leaders, as did Brentford, who needed a Rowan Vines goal to see off nine-man Chesterfield 2-1, but QPR lost again, this time 3-0 at Notts County and their promotion hopes are now looking in serious doubt.

At the wrong end of the table, new Mansfield player-manager Keith Curle celebrated his first game in charge of the club with a 4-0 drubbing of ten-man Blackpool, however they are still bottom, three points behind Cheltenham, Peterborough and Huddersfield after Cheltenham lost their seven-game unbeaten run 4-1 at Peterborough and Huddersfield won for the first time in nine games, 2-1 against Stockport.

Elsewhere, Dean Morgan scored the decisive goal as Colchester came from behind to win at Luton, Plymouth need a last-minute Lee Hodges penalty to earn a point at home to Swindon, Tranmere scored three second half goals in ten minutes for a comfortable 4-0 win at Northampton and Wycombe ended a run of five league games without a win by overcoming Port Vale 3-1.

 

Division Three leaders Hartlepool suffered a surprise 4-0 defeat at the hands of Rochdale on Saturday, the home teams first win in nine, meaning that Rushden were able to cut the deficit at the top to just one point after their 1-0 win at Macclesfield, their sixth match unbeaten, thanks to a late winner.

Third-placed Bournemouth were happy with a goalless draw at Shrewsbury, while Bury moved to within a point of them after beating Scunthorpe 1-0, Danny Swailes with the crucial goal 17 minutes from time.

And level on 35 points, one behind Bury, are fifth-placed Wrexham and sixth-placed York, both sides enjoying 2-1 wins away from home against teams with ten men, Carlisle and Kidderminster respectively.

York's win was their fourth in succession and arrived courtesy of an 86th-minute winner from Lee Nogan. Bottom of the entire football league are still Boston who had the ignominy of seeing Southend defender Leon Court grab a hat-trick against them in a 4-2 defeat, but it was not all bad news for the club as Bristol Rovers, Carlisle and Swansea all suffered defeats as well, Bristol's their seventh in a row.

Hull's final match at Boothferry Park, played in front of a crowd of 14,162 fans, did not have a fairy tale ending as they lost 1-0 to Darlington, Leyton Orient beat Torquay 2-0 and Cambridge, having had two men dismissed, somehow managed to equalise at Lincoln through Paul Wanless with 12 minutes left.

 

PLAYER OF THE WEEKEND: Richard Molenaar

The Dutch centre-back picked a fine moment to score his first goal of the season, heading in Lewis Emmanuel's corner and what a vital one it turned out to be, ending a run of seven straight defeats in Division One and keeping Bradford two places and six points off the drop zone.









Richard Morgan