Chelsea step up challenge to United

MANCHESTER, England -- Chelsea strengthened their bid to regain the Premier League title by winning 2-0 at Manchester City, while Arsenal squandered two more home points when they were held 1-1 by Liverpool.

League leaders Manchester United, who go to Middlesbrough on Sunday, are two points clear of Chelsea, with Arsenal another three adrift in third place.

Liverpool are a further eight points behind in fourth spot.

Chelsea's cause was helped by City defender Richard Dunne's sixth minute own goal and Salomon Kalou added the second after 53 minutes.

Arsenal, who drew 1-1 with Liverpool in their midweek Champions League quarterfinal first leg at the Emirates, trailed to a Peter Crouch goal three minutes before the break, but Nicklas Bendtner equalized after 54 minutes.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger refused to acknowledge that his side's title prospects were dead.

"I said before that we would need at least five wins and a draw," said the Frenchman. "In my brain it is not over, because it is not over mathematically."

With Manchester United still to visit Stamford Bridge, Chelsea's hopes of a title success, which seemed most unlikely not so long ago, remain very much alive.

By contrast, defeat was a massive blow to Manchester City's hopes of qualifying for Europe and manager Sven Goran Eriksson has a difficult task in trying to keep their once promising season from falling apart.

With reports of unrest at Chelsea after the midweek Champions League defeat to Fenerbahce in Istanbul, the Londoners needed an early boost and received it from City captain Dunne.

A swift incisive early move involving Kalou, Michael Essien and Nicolas Anelka culminated with Dunne sliding Anelka's cross past his own keeper Joe Hart.

Even without Didier Drogba, kept in reserve for the return leg with Fenerbahce next week, Chelsea had the chances to complete a comfortable win.

Their second goal came eight minutes after the restart. Kalou and Essien prised open the City back-four before Kalou rounded Hart and stroked the ball into the empty net.

Chelsea manager Avram Grant said: "For the past three months we have won almost 80% of our league games.

"That is the record of champions and we have come a long way when you consider a lot of clubs were ahead of us during the season.

"But United are also doing well. I do not think, though, they will win until the end of the season.

"We will just carry on doing our job, like we did today.It is good to win first, ahead of United. But I expect a good result for them tomorrow."

Liverpool left Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres on the bench as Rafael Benitez made wholesale changes in advance of next Tuesday's Champions League clash between the sides at Anfield.

Crouch, given few starts since the arrival of Torres, hoped his goal would raise his status at the club,saying: "It's nice to remind people I'm still alive."

At the bottom end of the table, it was a bleak day for Fulham and Bolton, who are looking ever more likely to join Derby in the Championship next season.

Aston Villa bounced back from last weekend's thrashing at Manchester United by dishing out similar treatment to Bolton in a 4-0 win at Villa Park.

Captain Gareth Barry scored with a ninth-minute header and a 20-yard shot on the hour, just after a Gabriel Agbonlahor strike. Marlon Harewood rounded off the win five minutes from time.

Sunderland now look safe after a 3-1 win over Fulham lifted them 10 points clear of the drop zone. Danny Collins' header on the stroke of half-time was followed by strikes from Michael Chopra and Kenwyne Jones with David Healy netting for Fulham.

Wigan boss Steve Bruce enjoyed the last laugh over his former club Birmingham, from whom he parted company in acrimonious circumstances at the end of last year.

Two goals from Ryan Taylor secured a 2-0 win that leaves Birmingham as the most vulnerable club outside the bottom three, four points clear of third-from-bottom Bolton.

Newcastle's revival continued with a 3-0 defeat of Reading, giving Kevin Keegan a third successive win.

Nigerian striker Obafemi Martins opened the scoring in the 18th minute, Michael Owen added the second two minutes before the interval and Mark Viduka claimed the third just before the hour.

Dimitar Berbatov gave Tottenham a seventh minute lead at Blackburn but Morten Gamst Pedersen converted David Bentley's cross to equalize after half an hour. E-mail to a friend