Arsenal won the north London derby while Leeds went down 6-1 against Portsmouth in the FA Premiership today.
Arsenal 2-1 Tottenham
Aston Villa 0-2 Middlesbrough
Charlton 3-1 Fulham
Bolton 0-0 Southampton
Portsmouth 6-1 Leeds
Wolves 1-1 Birmingham
Arsenal fought back after going behind to an early goal to beat Tottenham 2-1 in today’s north-London derby at Highbury and extend their lead at the top of the Barclaycard Premiership.
Spurs had not won a league game at Highbury in their previous 10 attempts, but got off to the perfect start this afternoon through Darren Anderton.
The former England international stabbed the ball home from close range after good build-up work from Helder Postiga and Robbie Keane to rocket Spurs into the lead after just five minutes.
It was, as expected, a fiery affair, with four players going into Mark Halsey’s notebook inside half-an-hour.
Arsenal finally got themselves back on level terms after 69 minutes when Robert Pires was on hand to turn the ball in after Kasey Keller had made a decent stop from Thierry Henry.
The Gunners poured forward in search of a winner, but it had more than a touch of good fortune about it, with Fredrik Ljungberg’s shot taking a massive deflection before flying past Keller.
With Chelsea and Manchester United not playing until tomorrow, Arsene Wenger’s side find themselves four points clear tonight.
Graham Stuart’s first goal for two seasons and a brace from Jonatan Johansson’s helped give ever-improving Charlton victory over Fulham at The Valley.
The Addicks went in front on 10 minutes when Stuart swept the ball home after Edwin van der Sar had parried Johansson’s shot straight into his path.
Johansson (69 & 76) helped himself to a second-half double to make sure of the result, with Sean Davis netting a last-minute consolation for the visitors. Charlton, though, go fourth.
Middlesbrough picked up a second successive victory after winning 2-0 at Aston Villa.
Bolo Zenden put Boro ahead after half an hour, the flying Dutchman producing a diving header to meet Franck Queudrue’s left-wing cross and steer the ball past Thomas Sorensen.
It was 2-0 soon after the restart when Zenden was upended by Lee Hendrie in the box on 49 minutes and Michael Ricketts – handed a start after Malcolm Christie broke his leg during training – sent Sorensen the wrong way from the penalty spot.
Southampton had Michael Svensson sent off late on, but held out for a goalless draw at the Reebok Stadium.
Svensson was shown a second yellow card with four minutes left by referee Howard Webb – after consultation with his assistant – following a clash with Bolton striker Jardel, who had gone down after a challenge from Graeme Le Saux.
The Brazilian striker was also booked for his part in the rumpus.
The home side did have the ball in the net during the second half, only to see Stelios Giannakopoulos’ effort chalked off for offside.
Wolves and Birmingham had drawn 1-1 at Molineux in the day’s early kick-off.
On-loan Chelsea striker Mikael Forssell put Birmingham in front at the start of the second half with a neat run and finish.
However, Dave Jones’ men then raised the tempo and got themselves level on 66 minutes when Steffen Iversen bundled the ball in following a goalmouth scramble.
Neither side could find a winner – although Iversen sent a gilt-edged opportunity wide in stoppage time.
The game at Fratton Park between Portsmouth and Leeds was first delayed by traffic congestion around the ground and then a power failure which held up kick-off until 3.30pm.
But the delay could not save Leeds from a nightmare, losing 6-1.
Dejan Stefanovic (17) put the home side ahead with a powerful header following a corner, but Leeds – without axed striker Mark Viduka – hit back almost immediately through Alan Smith, who collected Seth Johnson’s pass to slot past Shaka Hislop.
However, it was Harry Redknapp’s side who went into the interval ahead when Gary O’Neil smashed the ball in from 18-yards on the stroke of half-time.
Just after the hour, Hayden Foxe put Portsmouth 3-1 up and further goals from O'Neil, Berger and Yakubu completed the 6-1 rout.