Ten-man Manchester City came out on top in a seven-goal thriller at Norwich to avoid falling further behind in the battle for the Barclays Premier League title.

City looked to be cruising to a routine win after Edin Dzeko bagged a brace inside the opening four minutes, but Anthony Pilkington pulled one back before Samir Nasri was dismissed following a confrontation with Sebastien Bassong.

The visitors made light of the disadvantage to go 3-1 up thanks to a Sergio Aguero goal, but Norwich fought back as Russell Martin found the net.

But a Mark Bunn own goal, after a Dzeko shot had come back off the post, sealed a 4-3 win, despite Martin's second for the Canaries.

Manchester United retained their seven-point lead thanks to a comfortable 2-0 win over West Brom at Old Trafford.

Gareth McAuley diverted an Ashley Young cross into his own net for the opener, with Robin van Persie sealing the win late on.

Aston Villa's miserable recent run continued as they suffered another thumping defeat as they went down 3-0 at home to Wigan.

Ivan Ramis headed in the opener in the third minute, with Emmerson Boyce and Arouna Kone completing the scoring.

Villa would have fallen into the bottom three were it not for a superb comeback from 10-man Stoke.

Southampton had led 3-1 at the Britannia Stadium thanks to strikes from Rickie Lambert, Jay Rodriguez and an Andy Wilkinson own goal.

Kenwyne Jones had got Stoke's goal and Matthew Upson made it 3-2 after 67 minutes, only for the Potters to have Steven Nzonzi dismissed for a tackle on Jack Cork.

But Cameron Jerome popped up in stoppage time to make it 3-3 and earn the hosts a point from a breathless encounter.

Swansea's impressive campaign continued with a 2-1 win at Fulham.

Danny Graham put the Swans ahead and Jonathan de Guzman doubled their advantage, meaning Bryan Ruiz's goal was not enough for Fulham.

In the day's early kick-off Tottenham came from a goal down to beat Sunderland 2-1. John O'Shea put the Black Cats ahead but a Carlos Cuellar own goal and an Aaron Lennon strike gave Spurs the points.

Reading gave their survival hopes a boost as they beat West Ham 1-0 after Pavel Pogrebnyak capitalised on a James Collins error.

In the evening kick-off Arsenal emerged 7-3 winners in a remarkable encounter with Newcastle at the Emirates Stadium.

The Gunners led three times through goals from Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Lukas Podolski, but were pegged back on each occasion by Demba Ba (2) and Sylvain Marveaux.

But Walcott completed his hat-trick and substitute Olivier Giroud got a quickfire double to seal the win.

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