Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal win in title hunt
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Manchester City clung on to beat Wolverhampton 4-3 and provisionally topple Manchester United from the Premier League summit yesterday, while struggling champion Chelsea returned to winning against Blackburn and Arsenal compounded West Ham's woes.
After Kolo Toure canceled out Nenad Milijas' opener for Wolves, City went 4-1 ahead in the second half through Carlos Tevez's double and Yaya Toure's strike.
But Kevin Doyle and Ronald Zubar gave City a scare by reducing the deficit.
While City went a point ahead of United, its neighbor plays the first of three games in hand at Tottenham today.
Tottenham was dislodged from fourth place - temporarily at least - by Chelsea beating Blackburn 2-0 to halt a two-match winless streak.
Arsenal remains third after a 3-0 victory at West Ham, whose manager Avram Grant was facing an uncertain future with the team rock bottom in the standings.
In Manchester, Wolves looked set to spoil Edin Dzeko's debut when Milijas was denied by Joe Hart's save but he stabbed home the rebound.
But after Dzeko's shot was deflected behind for a corner, Vincent Kompany headed Adam Johnson's corner toward the far post where Kolo Toure controlled the ball and struck through a crowd of players through David Jones' legs and eventually over the line.
After the break, Dzeko - a 27 million pound ($42 million) signing from Wolfsburg - was truly upstaged by Tevez, who had been shunted from his favored central berth to a spot on the left.
Within four minutes of the restart, Tevez burst past Christophe Berra and Stephen Hunt, then weaved inside Richard Stearman before slotting the ball into the net.
In the 54th, Dzeko sent Yaya Toure clean through and the midfielder followed his brother by scoring.
Tevez was on target again in the 66th when a header from fellow Argentine Pablo Zabaleta's cross bounced in via the underside of the crossbar.
But within two minutes Wolves pulled one back, with Doyle scoring from the penalty spot after he was bundled over by substitute Joleon Lescott. Zubar added another on an 86th-minute header but Wolves couldn't produce a late leveler.
"The first 20 minutes were bad because we didn't play; after this we played well," City manager Roberto Mancini. "But if you lose concentration you can lose some goals."
Chelsea secured only its second win in its last 10 league games after Branislav Ivanovic scored and then set up Nicolas Anelka.
Morten Gamst Pedersen flicked John Terry's header straight at the far post to Ivanovic, who squeezed a shot past goalkeeper Paul Robinson.
More poor defending in the 76th allowed Ivanovic to head to Anelka, who netted from close range.
"Our difficult moment was too long, but now it's important to look forward," Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti said. "It was not easy to move on."
With Chelsea six points off the lead, Ancelotti was not optimistic about a second straight title.
"I don't know this but we will fight every game," the Italian said. "It's not easy to come back and close the gap to first position."
The gap between Chelsea and Arsenal alone is five points after the Gunners ripped apart West Ham.
Ahead of the opener, Arsenal worked the ball through Jack Wilshere down the right to Theo Walcott and Samir Nasri stepped over the winger's centering pass. The ball found its way through to Robin van Persie, who sent the ball into he corner of the net.
Four minutes before half time, Van Persie latched onto Cesc Fabregas' ball down the left flank and the Dutch forward pulled back from the goal line to the center, where Walcott fired home.
Van Persie completed the victory from the penalty spot in the 77th after Wayne Bridge brought down Walcott on a miserable debut for the defender since joining on loan from Manchester City until the end of the season.
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