Man Utd & Chelsea wins

Ryan Giggs brought up his century of league goals as Manchester United FC defeated Derby County FC to close to within a point of Arsenal FC at the English summit.

Century
When the Welshman opened the scoring in the 40th minute at Old Trafford he became the eleventh United player to score a century of league goals for the club. The last man to do it was Mark Hughes, now the manager of Premier League rivals Blackburn Rovers FC. Carlos Tévez then scored either side of half-time for the champions, who conceded a goal to Steve Howard – Derby's first away from home this season – in the 76th minute before completing the scoring through Ronaldo's late penalty.

Yakubu hat-trick
Chelsea FC are two points back after maintaining their imperious home form against another team struggling in the relegation zone, Sunderland AFC. Andriy Shevchenko (23) and a Frank Lampard penalty (75) were enough for Chelsea against Roy Keane's visitors who had Liam Miller sent off late on. Portsmouth FC are now unbeaten in eleven games after Sulley Muntari scored two spectacular goals in a 3-1 victory at Aston Villa FC, while Everton FC are also in fine form, Yakubu Ayegbeni scoring three unanswered goals against Fulham FC.

Newcastle win
Having held the leaders Arsenal FC in midweek, Newcastle United FC won for the first time since 22 October as Habib Beye's header sealed a fortuitous 2-1 win against Birmingham City FC. Arsenal travel to struggling Middlesbrough FC on Sunday when Blackburn face West Ham United FC, Tottenham Hotspur FC entertain Manchester City FC and Bolton Wanderers FC tackle Wigan Athletic FC.


Liverpool defeated
However, fourth-placed Liverpool FC missed a chance to close the gap as they suffered their first league loss of the season at Reading FC. Stephen Hunt's penalty was cancelled out before the break by Steven Gerrard but Liverpool had no answer to second-half goals by Kevin Doyle and James Harper.