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Beattie earns Everton a fourth win
LIVERPOOL, England -- James Beattie continued Everton's recent revival with the 13th-minute goal that ensured a fourth successive victory for David Moyes's Premier League side. To cap a miserable afternoon for Arsenal, Spanish midfielder Cesc Fabregas was sent off for lashing out at Everton's Tim Cahill in the final minutes. Everton's performance recalled their success of last season and virtually extinguished any lingering threat of the Merseysiders being dragged into a relegation battle. Arsenal's problems lay in central defense where both Phillippe Senderos and the vastly experienced Sol Campbell failed to come to terms with Beattie's powerful running. It was this weakness that Everton eventually exploited to claim a deserved 13th minute lead through Beattie's seventh strike of the season. The build-up to the goal was simplicity itself and undoubtedly sparked a major inquest in the Arsenal dressing room about how the Everton striker was allowed to collect Cahill's hopeful, lobbed pass so easily. With both Senderos and Campbell covering, there should have been no danger but Beattie simply shrugged off their flimsy challenges before calmly stabbing the ball past the advancing Jens Lehmann. Arsenal should have taken the lead just 60 seconds earlier when Freddie Ljungberg connected with Gilbert's low right-wing cross but saw his close range effort pushed onto the post by the alert Nigel Martyn. With the top three sides not playing until Sunday, fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur wasted the chance to make inroads when they were held 0-0 at home by Aston Villa, who finished with 10 men. Red-cardedAfter 83 minutes Gareth Barry was red-carded after he was booked twice within a few minutes, the second yellow coming for a cynical challenge on Aaron Lennon. Villa goalkeeper Thomas Sorenson earned his side their point with a series of superb saves and Tottenham were hampered by injuries to Jermaine Jenas and Edgar Davids, who both had to go off. Debut goals from David Thompson and Neil Mellor, who hit a last-minute winner, for Wigan Athletic, continued Middlesbrough's poor run as they lost 3-2 at the Riverside. Mellor, on loan from Liverpool and playing his first Premiership game for more than a year, made the opener for Jason Roberts after 80 seconds and grabbed the winner in stoppage time. Thompson put Wigan 2-0 ahead after 29 minutes but Middlesbrough battled back onto level terms with goals from Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Nigerian Yakubu. Mexican striker Jared Borghetti opened his Premiership account for Bolton in their 2-0 home defeat of Manchester City. He struck in the 37th minute and four minutes later Kevin Nolan converted a free-kick from Giannakopoulos. Morten Gamst Pedersen claimed a disputed winner as Blackburn intensified the pressure on their former manager Graeme Souness with an impressive 1-0 victory at Newcastle. Rovers' Norwegian international appeared to apply the finishing touch with his hand after Shefki Kuqi rose above defender Peter Ramage to head down a Lucas Neill cross 15 minutes from time to settle a tense affair. And there were also protests from Newcastle's Lee Bowyer that Pedersen had pushed him in the back in the prelude to the midfielder's eighth goal of the season, converted from virtually under the crossbar. Newcastle left the field to a chorus of boos from angry supporters - with hundreds more protesting outside the ground after the game - in the wake of another far from convincing performance. Birmingham City, who started the day second from bottom, trounced fellow strugglers Portsmouth 5-0 at St Andrew's. Jiri Jarosek, Jermaine Pennant, Matthew Upson, Mikael Forssell (pen) and David Dunn all pierced the overworked Portsmouth defense. Anthony Le Tallec's deflected winner 18 minutes from time handed bottom side Sunderland only their second league win of the season and added to West Brom's relegation fears. The striker's goal settled a low-quality contest but it owed much to good fortune. His shot was heading wide until it struck defender Steve Watson to completely wrongfoot keeper Tomasz Kuszczak. 
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