Aston Villa 2 Wigan 0
Striker Gabriel Agbonlahor inspired Aston Villa to their first ever home Barclays Premier League win over Wigan.
Agbonlahor scored his fourth league goal of the campaign to break the deadlock before the break and created the second for Darren Bent.
Only a series of fine saves by Wigan keeper Ali Al Habsi prevented Villa - still unbeaten in the league this season - from winning by a more emphatic margin.
Villa boss Alex McLeish had called for his side's creative players to step up to the mark - and they answered his call.
Agbonlahor, in particular, was back to his best and demonstrated the form which earned him his breakthrough at England level.
Bent also looked sharp after his injury lay-off, midfielder Barry Bannan always threatened to unlock the Wigan defence and Stephen Warnock impressed at left-back.
Wigan only threatened after the introduction of former Villa midfielder Shaun Maloney in the final quarter of the game and have now suffered four successive league defeats.
Manchester United 2 Norwich 0
Manchester United completed a club record 19th successive home league win - but few have been as unconvincing as this bloodless triumph over plucky Norwich.
The visitors carved out virtually all the best chances, with Anthony Pilkington hitting a post and rolling a shot wide after finding himself clean through.
Norwich were made to pay when Anderson powered home a close-range header midway through the second period before Danny Welbeck scored his third goal in a week, sliding in to finish off Park Ji-sung's cut-back.
United boss Sir Alex Ferguson spent a good proportion of the build-up extolling the virtues of his Norwich counterpart Paul Lambert, and explaining why Scots are such a significant presence in the top flight.
Attention to detail clearly plays a huge part and Lambert had done his homework.
Norwich did attack when they could and they were the better team for the first 20 minutes, although their best work was done around their own penalty area - and it did not involve the ball.
Sunderland 2 West Brom 2
Ahmed Elmohamady's first goal for Sunderland spared manager Steve Bruce a mauling as the Black Cats pulled off a timely rescue job at the end of a difficult week.
The 50-year-old was firmly in the firing line after his side conceded twice within a catastrophic opening five minutes as James Morrison and then Shane Long got West Brom off to a dream start.
But as a chorus of "Bruce out" rang around the Stadium of Light, his players responded to drag themselves back from the brink of disaster.
Nicklas Bendtner gave them hope with a 24th-minute strike, his first for the club, and Elmohamady followed suit within two minutes in a chaotic first half.
A rejuvenated Sunderland enjoyed the better of the game from that point on, but were unable to make the pressure tell and had to make do with a point on a day when three were perhaps what was required.
Blackburn 0 Manchester City 4
Mario Balotelli grabbed his chance wipe out the memory of Manchester City's Munich misery as Roberto Mancini's men eased to victory at ailing Blackburn.
Balotelli drilled home City's second just before the hour and ran the home defence ragged in what was City's perfect riposte to the midweek controversy involving Carlos Tevez.
Adam Johnson's wonder-goal and late strikes from Samir Nasri and Stefan Savic wrapped up City's second half master-class leading furious Rovers fans to chant for the dismissal of boss Steve Kean.
Despite accepting Edin Dzeko's apology for his outburst at being substituted in midweek, Mancini had dropped the Bosnian to the bench and opted to give Balotelli his chance.
It was an inspired decision with Balotelli looking by far the liveliest of City's attacking options, particularly when Sergio Aguero limped off injured on the half-hour.
Wolves 1 Newcastle 2
Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul produced a man-of-the-match display to keep the Magpies riding high in the Barclays Premier League.
Krul conjured a handful of stunning saves as Wolves slumped to a fourth consecutive defeat, despite Steven Fletcher setting up a frantic finish with a diving header in the 88th minute.
With Krul in magnificent form at one end, it was Demba Ba and Jonas Gutierrez who saw United home at the other to extend their unbeaten top-flight run to 10 games
Inside the first 13 minutes it was evident as to why Newcastle can proudly boast the stingiest defence in the top flight, the Magpies conceding just four goals now in their first seven matches.