Arsenal swapped places with champions Manchester United at the top of the Premier League yesterday after their 3-1 win at Manchester City preceded United's fortunate 1-1 draw at Tottenham Hotspur.
Two goals for Emmanuel Adebayor and one for Eduardo de Silva made Arsenal the first team to win at City in the league this season and put them on 60 points from 25 games.
United, who could have returned to the summit with a win, trailed to Dimitar Berbatov's first half effort but levelled three minutes into added time with a close-range Carlos Tevez volley that went in off Spurs defender Michael Dawson.
"It's going to be nip and tuck from now until the end of the season," relieved United manager Alex Ferguson told Sky Sports. "We took a lot of risks in the last 20 minutes and feel we deserved a point."
United are now two points behind Arsenal, with third-placed Chelsea six adrift of the leaders after a 1-1 draw at Portsmouth for whom transfer deadline-day signing Jermain Defoe scored on his debut to cancel out Nicolas Anelka's opener.
Defoe's leveller denied Chelsea a club record 10th consecutive victory in all competitions.
"We lost two points, we created lots of chances," Chelsea manager Avram Grant said, adding that he felt Defoe's goal should have been flagged offside.
Everton stayed fourth after a 0-0 draw at Blackburn Rovers, one point above Liverpool who won in the league for the first time since Boxing Day and have a game in hand. Second half goals for Peter Crouch, Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard earned a 3-0 home win over Sunderland to relieve some of the pressure on Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez.
United minimised the damage of a below-par performance with the last kick of the game at White Hart Lane to deny Tottenham a first win over them since 2001.
With virtually every player on the pitch inside the Spurs area for a late corner, including United keeper Edwin Van der Sar, Argentina forward Tevez connected at the near post and the ball ended up in the net.
Tottenham were good value for the lead they took in the 21st minute through Bulgarian Berbatov after Van der Sar failed to hold a low cross from Aaron Lennon.
"When you're playing a team like Manchester United you can't consider it being two points lost, even though we were so close to winning the game and conceding an own goal in the very last minute is very hard," Spurs manager Juande Ramos said.
Earlier, Arsenal striker Adebayor opened the scoring after nine minutes, then turned provider after 26, heading Gael Clichy's cross to Eduardo who chested down and volleyed in.
City hit back when Vedran Corluka robbed Clichy and set up Fernandes who beat goalkeeper Jens Lehmann.
Arsenal had to wait until two minutes from time to make the points safe after Cesc Fabregas's ball reached Adebayor on the edge of the area.
England squad
England manager Fabio Capello on Saturday cut his provisional 30-man squad to 23 players for the friendly international against Switzerland at Wembley on Feb. 6.
Goalkeepers: James (Portsmouth), Carson (Aston Villa), Kirkland (Wigan).
Defenders: Bridge (Chelsea), A. Cole (Chelsea), Ferdinand (Man. United), Brown (Man. United), Lescott (Everton), Richards (Man. City), Upson (West Ham), Woodgate (Tottenham).
Midfielders: Gerrard (Liverpool), Barry (Aston Villa), Jenas (Tottenham), Hargreaves (Man. United), J. Cole (Chelsea), Young (Aston Villa), Wright-Phillips (Chelsea), Bentley (Blackburn).
Forwards: Agbonlahor (Aston Villa), Owen (Newcastle), Rooney, (Man. United), Crouch (Liverpool).