Hernan Crespo struck in the 74th minute to give Chelsea a 3-2 win over Fulham yesterday that maintained their 100 per cent home record in the Premier League.
The champions stay nine points clear of Manchester United, who crushed West Brom 3-0 at home, and 15 in front of Liverpool and Tottenham who both notched up 2-0 home victories.
William Gallas and midfielder Frank Lampard put Chelsea ahead but Fulham came back into the game with a strike from Brian McBride before the half hour and a 56th-minute penalty converted by Heidar Helguson.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, referring to his team's reaction to Fulham's fight-back, told reporters: "When you are in a comfortable position and you make mistakes, it is hard to come back but I trust my players' mentality."
Fulham manager Chris Coleman told Sky Sports: "I thought we showed tremendous spirit, and courage, and we got back. Then the game could have gone either way."
Paul Scholes, Rio Ferdinand, who headed his second goal for United, and Ruud van Nistelrooy scored at Old Trafford where manager Alex Ferguson was as impressed by his defence.
"Our defending has been good in the last few games. We've hopefully come out of that bad spell," he said after a third successive league clean sheet.
"The result in Benfica was a killer for us but we've turned it around for ourselves," he added, referring to United's 2-1 loss in Lisbon earlier this month that put his side out of Europe.
At Anfield, Michael Owen had an unhappy return to his former club with Newcastle United, who went down to two first half goals and had midfielder Lee Bowyer sent off for an ugly tackle on Xabi Alonso. Steven Gerrard struck after a quarter of an hour and two minutes before the interval Peter Crouch's shot came back off the post but went in after hitting prostrate keeper Shay Given on the back of the head.
"We got off lightly. We were played off the park in the first half and 2-0 certainly didn't flatter them at halftime," Newcastle manager Graeme Souness was quoted as saying on club's official website.
"They peppered our goal and we've got to learn from that."
Arsenal ended a run of three league defeats in which they had not scored by winning 1-0 at Charlton Athletic to climb to seventh, 20 points adrift of Chelsea and two behind Bolton Wanderers, held 0-0 by bottom team Sunderland, and Wigan Athletic, who edged a thriller with Manchester City 4-3.
Reyes on target
Jose Antonio Reyes scored just before the hour to end the drought with his second league goal of the season, a shot inside the near post after goalkeeper Thomas Myhre had parried Thierry Henry's effort from the right.
"The team was a bit nervy because we have lost a few games recently... When we scored it was a relief and we are not used to this but this victory can give us a new start," manager Arsene Wenger told the Arsenal website.
Charlton were down to 10 men for the last 18 minutes after midfielder Danny Murphy was sent off for dissent.
Spurs beat 10-man Birmingham City with a Robbie Keane penalty and Jermain Defoe's injury-time strike. City's Muzzy Izzet was sent off just past the hour for a second bookable offence.
Results
Premier League
Aston Villa 4
Everton 0
Charlton 0
Arsenal 1
Chelsea 3
Fulham 2
Liverpool 2
Newcastle 0
Man. United 3
West Brom 0
M'boro 0
Blackburn 2
Portsmouth 1
West Ham 1
Sunderland 0
Bolton 0
Tottenham 2
Birmingham 0
Wigan 4
Man. City 3
The Championship
Brighton-QPR 1-0
Burnley-Stoke 1-0
Cardiff-Plymouth 0-2
Crewe-Hull 2-2
Derby-Luton 1-1
Ipswich-Crystal Palace 0-2
Leeds-Coventry 3-1
Leicester-Millwall 1-1
Preston-Sheffield Wed. 0-0
Sheffield United-Norwich 1-3
Watford-Southampton 3-0
Wolves-Reading 0-2
Premier League Scorers
14 goals van Nistelrooy (Man. Utd)
12 goals Lampard (Chelsea)
10 goals Aiyegbeni (Middlesbrough)
9 goals Bent (Charlton), Rooney (Man. Utd)
8 goals Henry (Arsenal), Harewood (West Ham), Cole (Man. City)
7 goals Camara (Wigan), Owen (Newcastle), Mido (Tottenham)
6 goals Keane (Tottenham), McBride (Fulham), Drogba (Chelsea)
League One
Barnsley-Hartlepool 1-1
Brentford-Swansea 2-1
Gillingham-Bristol City 1-1
Nottm Forest-Doncaster 4-0
Oldham-Bradford 2-1
Port Vale-Blackpool 1-2
Rotherham-Huddersfield 1-1
Scunthorpe-Chesterfield 2-2
Southend-MK Dons 0-0
Swindon-Colchester 1-0
Walsall-Tranmere 0-0
Yeovil-Bournemouth (Friday) 1-1
League Two
Barnet-Peterborough 2-1
Bristol Rovers-Shrewsbury 2-1
Bury-Grimsby 1-2
Carlisle-Darlington 1-1
Cheltenham-Chester 1-0
Leyton Orient-Rushden 5-1
Lincoln-Boston 0-0
Macclesfield-Stockport 6-0
Northampton-Mansfield 1-0
Oxford-Notts County 3-0
Torquay-Wycombe 2-2
Wrexham-Rochdale 2-1
Upcoming fixtures...
Tomorrow: Premier League - 8.45 p.m. Arsenal vs Portsmouth; Birmingham vs Man. United; Fulham vs Aston Villa; Man. City vs Chelsea; Newcastle vs Charlton; West Brom vs Tottenham; West Ham vs Wigan. 9 p.m. Blackburn vs Sunderland; Bolton vs M'boro; Everton vs Liverpool.
Saturday: Premier League - 1.45 p.m. Aston Villa vs Arsenal; 2 p.m. Charlton vs West Ham; Chelsea vs Birmingham; Tottenham vs Newcastle; 4 p.m. Liverpool vs West Brom; Manchester United vs Bolton; Middlesbrough vs Manchester City; Portsmouth vs Fulham; Sunderland vs Everton; Wigan vs Blackburn.
Monday: Premier League - 1 p.m. West Brom vs Aston Villa; 1.45 p.m. West Ham vs Chelsea; 4 p.m. Birmingham vs Wigan; Bolton vs Liverpool; Everton vs Charlton; Fulham vs Sunderland; Newcastle vs Middlesbrough; 8.35 p.m. Blackburn vs Portsmouth.
Tuesday, Jan. 3: Premier League - 9 p.m Arsenal vs Manchester United.
Wednesday, Jan. 4: Premier League - 9 p.m. Manchester City vs Tottenham.