Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United established their usual top three positions in the Premier League with gritty victories but Manchester City lost ground with their second successive defeat on Saturday.Leaders Chelsea snatched a 2-1 win at Blackburn Rovers through a late Branislav Ivanovic strike and Alex Song's 88th-minute header secured a 1-0 home win for Arsenal over West Ham United.
Manchester United, who have not lost at home to Tottenham Hotspur for 21 years, notched up another win in the series as a Nemanja Vidic header and a bizarre late goal by Nani secured a 2-0 success.
Manchester City followed last week's 3-0 loss to Arsenal by going down 2-1 at Wolverhampton Wanderers and Everton beat Stoke City 1-0 with Aiyegbeni Yakubu's first goal of the season. Fulham beat Wigan Athletic 2-0 thanks to two goals by Clint Dempsey.
Chelsea lead the table with 25 points from 10 games, five ahead of Arsenal and United and eight clear of City.
Autumn games against mid-table opposition are often looked back upon as decisive in the title race and the top four may come to see Oct. 30 as a key date in their seasons.
Blackburn were well on top of a lacklustre Chelsea in the early stages and took a deserved lead through Benjani Mwaruwari after 21 minutes before the visitors hit back through Nicolas Anelka six minutes before halftime.
Chelsea, held 1-1 by Blackburn last season, eventually awoke from their torpor but struggled to create chances until Yuri Zhirkov's cross was headed home by Ivanovic after 84 minutes.
It was an all-action start at Old Trafford as Ji-sung Park hit a post with a shot for United and Rafael van der Vaart doing the same for Spurs.
Both sides showed plenty of invention and attacking intent but the breakthrough came from a straightforward set-piece goal as Vidic headed home a Nani free kick after 31 minutes.
Spurs then lost the impressive Van der Vaart with a hamstring strain that could keep him out of Tuesday's Champions League clash with Inter Milan but the bad day was far from finished.
In an incident that will be replayed relentlessly, Spurs keeper Heurelho Gomes thought he had been awarded a free kick and placed the ball on the ground in front of his goal.
Nani, seemingly aware that the referee had in fact ruled "play on", nipped in and tucked the ball into the unguarded net and, despite furious protests, the goal was given.
DOMINATED POSSESSION
Arsenal dominated possession at the Emirates, hitting the woodwork twice, but had to wait until the 88th minute to find a way past an obdurate West Ham as Gael Clichy crossed for Song to nod in his third goal in a week.
"Song is amazing, he has added something to his game. He came as a centre back, becomes a defensive midfielder and now he's playing like a striker," Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said.
Manchester City were all over Wolves initially but after a 23rd-minute Emmanuel Adebayor penalty they sat back and paid a heavy price when Nenad Milijas equalised and David Edwards scrambled in a winner after 57 minutes.
City manager Roberto Mancini was perplexed by the turnaround.
"We played very well for the first 15 minutes, some fantastic football, but after that I don't know why we finished playing football," he said.
"It's important for me to understand why this happened today. At the moment I don't. Maybe because we played well in the first 15 minutes we thought it was an easy game but it does not exist and in the end Wolves deserved to win the game."
Man utd win with an outragous 2nd goal........
With most off the talk focused on the Nani goal and how he cheated by even thinking he should have kicked the ball into an empty net after he handled it i had to post this next story in my opinion he should not have got the goal and should have got a yellow card for thinking about it, BUT on the other hand the whistle had not gone and we all no you always play till the ref blows, the goal stood and really the linesman is to blame fully here he saw the hand ball the ref maybe did not see it and for the linesman to have put his flag up so so late is outragous BUT he did put it up so the goal should not have stood once he explained to the ref what had happend the ref should have dissallowed it players should start being honest or are we all dreaming there all footballers are taught from an early age always play till the whistle blows so really who is at fault here?????
Manchester United beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 at Old Trafford in a match marred by a farcical second goal scored by Nani.
Spurs' woeful record when visiting the Red Devils was maintained thanks to Nemanja VIdic's header on the half-hour mark.
Nani then doubled the lead late on in farcical circumstances. Goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes placed the ball down inside his box in the belief that Spurs had been awarded a free-kick for a handball from the Portuguese - who went down with a reasonable claim for a penalty - but referee Mark Clattenburg, who never blew his whistle, allowed the forward to casually trot up to the ball and knock it into the unguarded net.
The referee's assistant raised his flag to disallow the goal, but Clattenburg overruled his assistant, despite Nani clearly handling the ball after hitting the ground under pressure from Younes Kaboul, seemingly believing play had stopped. The goal stood, and the incident can now be added to the list of controversial events in the recent history of this fixture.
However, for all the mentions of incidents involving Pedro Mendes, Howard Webb or anyone else, the fact remains that the last time the Londoners won at Old Trafford, Gary Lineker scored the winner.
Spurs winger Gareth Bale, 21, was just five months old when his club claimed that 1-0 win, whilst the United full-back who did such a good job of controlling him, Rafael da Silva, had not even been born.
Despite Rafael managing largely to neutralise the Welshman's threat, Spurs still offered plenty in this match with, predictably, Rafael van der Vaart at the heart of all that was good about their play.
After a bright start from United - in which Park Ji-sung struck the post with a fierce low 20-yard drive - the Dutchman responded by hitting the woodwork at the other end with a rasping shot that crashed off the crossbar with goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar well beaten, before flashing another strike over the target.
Park bent an effort wide of the Spurs upright, and Rafael did likewise after a slaloming run into the area but, before the skill and guile on show, it was the most basic of goals that broke the deadlock.
Javier Hernandez drew a foul from Spurs defender Younes Kaboul out on the right, and Nani's inviting free-kick was met by a timely run from the unmarked Vidic, who glanced his header past Gomes for his second of the season.
Unperturbed by going behind, Spurs continued to threaten, and a smart corner from Van der Vaart was clipped back to Luka Modric, who forced a decent save from Van der Sar - who became the ninth player over 40 years of age to play in the Premier League with this appearance.
After the break the match began to lose much of the preceding tempo and attacking ambition, with United gradually putting the squeeze on Spurs.
Bale marauded across the pitch before flashing a strike wide of the far post, before substitute Roman Pavlyuchenko's shot from distance deflected off Vidic and almost beat Van der Sar, but in general chances were at more of a premium
After Nani's comical goal doubled United's lead, the Portuguese seemed determined to score a genuine strike, and fired in a dipping rocket from distance that clipped the top of the crossbar.
To compound Tottenham's misery at yet again leaving Old Trafford with nothing save for frustration and a sense of injustice, Van der Vaart was substituted in the latter stages after feeling a twinge in his hamstring, a worrying sign ahead of their Champions League clash with Internazionale in midweek.
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