Thierry Henry scored what could prove to be a vital goal in his club's quest for the league championship yesterday when he took advantage of a defensive error in the West Brom defence to score an 85th-minute winner at the Hawthorns in a 2-1 win for the champions.

Earlier Arsène Wenger's side had been stunned when Daniel Dichio headed West Brom in front from a third-minute corner, but after Francis Jeffers had levelled three minutes into the second period, the match appeared to be heading for a draw until Henry's late intervention.

Second-placed Chelsea fought out a goalless draw at Stamford Bridge with Southampton, dropping four points behind Arsenal in the process, and the Gunners' day just got better when in front of the television cameras, Manchester United lost 3-1 at the Riverside for the first time in the Premiership.

Steve McClaren's side recorded only their third win in their last eleven league games to remain undefeated at home this season thanks to goals from Alen Boškic, Szilard Nemeth and a late Joseph-Desire Job strike.

Liverpool still cannot find a way to win in the Premiership after throwing away a 1-0 advantage at Anfield over Blackburn Rovers.

John Arne Riise had given Liverpool a 17th-minute deflected lead, but Andy Cole, deservedly so, drew Blackburn level 13 minutes from time with a brilliant shot and Gérard Houllier's team have now taken just three points from their last eight Premiership games, although yesterday's point was the club's 700th in the Premiership.

At the foot of the table, ten-man West Ham came from a goal down at home to Fulham to snatch a point through a 65th-minute Trevor Sinclair penalty, while Bolton Wanderers won just their second Premiership match in their last 16, 4-3 at the Reebok stadium against Newcastle United. The home team took an early lead through Jay-Jay Okocha, only for Alan Shearer to draw Newcastle level three minutes later.

But, in a roller-coaster game, Bolton went ahead again a minute after Shearer's equaliser when Ricardo Gardner netted and just past the hour mark they led 4-1 after a Michael Ricketts double. 

However, if the home supporters thought that the game was over, then they were wrong, as firstly Shola Ameobi and then another Shearer thunderbolt from a free-kick, his 350th career goal, tested their nerves, but they held on for a valuable 4-3 win that moved them out of the bottom three.

Elsewhere, Tottenham came back from a Jason Euell double at White Hart Lane to draw 2-2 with Charlton thanks to goals from Robbie Keane and Steffen Iversen and this after Christian Ziege had been dismissed for the second game in a row.

Wayne Rooney also saw red for Everton in a 1-1 draw at Birmingham for a foul on Steve Vickers. It was his first ever dismissal, but the point kept Everton fourth in the table.

Leeds won their second successive league game having gone behind to a Michael Proctor goal at the Stadium of Light, but James Milner became the youngest ever scorer in the Premiership when he brought Terry Venables's team level on 51 minutes and substitute Robbie Fowler coolly converted a penalty ten minutes from time to keep Sunderland deep in trouble.

And finally Manchester City needed late goals from Ali Bernarbia and Marc-Vivien Foe to secure a 3-1 win at Maine Road over Aston Villa who have yet to win away in the Premiership this season.

Division One leaders Portsmouth drew with Crystal Palace at Fratton Park, Harry Redknapp's sides fourth draw in a row, a result that meant second-placed Leicester City, who took on Ipswich Town, could close the gap to one point with a home win.

 

However, in front of a live television audience, Micky Adams's team froze having taken the lead through a Paul Dickov penalty ten minutes after half-time, conceding two goals in the final six minutes, with Darren Ambrose grabbing an 84th-minute winner that extends Portsmouth's lead to four points.

Of those in the chasing pack, there was just a solitary win for Neil Warnock's Sheffield United, 1-0 at Walsall, with Michael Brown getting the winner with a fantastic goal.

However, there were defeats for Nottingham Forest, 2-0 at Sheffield Wednesday, giving Chris Turner his first victory as Owls boss, for Norwich at home to struggling Brighton, Steve Sidwell with the decisive strike and for Reading at Coventry, a result that gave the Sky Blues their fourth consecutive league win.

Of those teams struggling to avoid the drop, Stoke went a 13th game without a win when they lost 4-2 at fellow strugglers Bradford City, while Grimsby surprisingly won 3-1 at Derby, John Oster with a brace of goals.

Other results saw Millwall and Gillingham share a four-goal thriller at the New Den with Marlon King's spot kick ensuring a point for the home team, Wimbledon and Watford fought out a goalless draw in their London derby, Burnley beat promotion-chasing Wolves 2-1 and Rotherham won 2-0 at Preston thanks to goals from Mark Robins and Richie Barker.

 

In Division Two, leaders Wigan extended their lead at the top to seven points after their 1-0 win at Port Vale and second-placed Cardiff's surprise 2-0 defeat at Luton Town after Joe Kinnear's side scored twice in the final ten minutes.

Bristol City leap-frogged Cardiff into second place on goal difference after their goalless draw at home with Plymouth, Crewe easily overcame nine-man Cheltenham 4-0 to move up to fourth in the table, Oldham needed to come from a goal down to snatch a point at Boundary Park against Blackpool, but ten-man Brentford went down at Swindon, a result that drops the Bees three places down to ninth.

In the relegation zone, bottom-of-the-table Mansfield won for the third league game in succession by beating Stockport 4-2 in one of the games of the day, 23rd-placed Huddersfield Town replacing them at the bottom after going down 2-1 at home to Tranmere Rovers, while fellow strugglers Peterborough were grateful to Andy Clark, whose late equaliser rescued a point at Colchester.

Also in Division Two, QPR enjoyed a rare winning feeling with a hard-fought 2-1 win at Loftus Road over Wycombe, a result that lifted the Londoners up to seventh.  Ten-man Notts County won a five-goal thriller at home against Barnsley courtesy of Ian Baraclough's late winner and Chesterfield also scored right at the death to record a 1-0 win at Northampton, Shayne Bradley's strike condemning the home team to a fourth defeat on the bounce.

Rushden and Diamonds took advantage of leaders Hartlepool's 2-0 defeat at Hull to go to the top of Division Three on Thursday after their goalless draw at Scunthorpe.

Hull were making their debut at their new stadium and the home supporters were given plenty to cheer about as they moved up to eleventh in the table.

 

However there were also defeats for Bournemouth, 3-0 at Oxford, who moved into sixth place in the table, for Bury, who were thrashed 4-1 at Shrewsbury with Ryan Lowe scoring a hat-trick to bring the home side their first win in over a month, and for York at Boston.

As a result, Cambridge jumped up to third place on the back of their 1-1 draw with Southend, and this despite going a goal down to the visitors. At the wrong end, there were valuable victories for two of the sides that started the day in the bottom three, Bristol Rovers and Boston.

Rovers, bottom of the entire football league, beat second-from-bottom Swansea 1-0 to swap places with the home side. Of those other teams in trouble, Carlisle drew 2-2 with Darlington, but will be disappointed with the point having led twice in the game and Macclesfield went down to their sixth home defeat of the campaign, 1-0 against Lincoln.

And finally, Rochdale and Wrexham drew 2-2 after Rochdale had taken a two-goal lead at Spotland and Kidderminster defeated ten-man Leyton Orient 3-2 after trailing at one point.

 

Player of the Day: James Milner

The England Under-17 winger, who is still 16 until 4th January, became the youngest ever goalscorer in the ten-year history of the Premiership when he equalised as a substitute at the Stadium of Light on Thursday, smashing home Jason Wilcox's cross and in the process beating the previous record held by Everton's Wayne Rooney by just three days.