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Chelsea pulled clear at the top of the English Premier League on Saturday after Manchester United ended Tottenham's winning start to the season with a 3-1 win at White Hart Lane.

On a day that saw Manchester City's hopes of breaking into the top four bolstered by a 4-2 win over Arsenal, Chelsea scored a stoppage time winner at Stoke to notch up a fifth straight win under new boss Carlo Ancelotti.

But Spurs, who like Chelsea had won their opening four games, were given a reality check by ten-man United, despite taking the lead with the fastest goal of the season so far -- an overhead kick by Jermain Defoe after only 47 seconds.

The champions hit back with a superb Ryan Giggs free-kick, Brazilian midfielder Anderson's first goal for the club and a late strike from Wayne Rooney ensured there was to be no comeback from Spurs after Paul Scholes had been ordered off for a second yellow card offence.

A performance that was described as "fantastic" by United boss Sir Alex Ferguson lifted the champions into second place, three points adrift of Chelsea and ahead of neighbours City on goal difference heading into next weekend's Manchester derby.

Arsenal's visit to the City of Manchester stadium provided the first significant test of the season for Mark Hughes's expensively assembled squad.

They passed it with flying colours but an impressive performance was overshadowed by controversy centred on former Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor, who appeared to stamp on the face of former team-mate Robin van Persie and then provocatively celebrated scoring City's third goal in front of the visiting supporters.

City had claimed a first-half lead when a Micah Richards shot spun off Manuel Almunia into the net for what was recorded as an own goal by the Gunners goalkeeper.

Van Persie equalised just after the hour mark but City responded superbly with a Craig Bellamy strike and a header from Adebayor effectively killing the contest.

Shaun Wright-Phillips added a fourth for City before Czech midfielder Tomas Rosicky, making his first appearance for Arsenal since January 2008, claimed a late consolation.

Afterwards Adebayor issued a public apology for his conduct, which was triggered by unhappy memories of his final months at Arsenal in which a section of the club's support turned against him.

City boss Mark Hughes urged the Football Association not to come down too hard on the 25-million-pound striker.

"You need to cut him a bit of slack, given what he has been through the last 18 months or so," Hughes argued.

Chelsea had looked destined to drop their first points of the season before Florent Malouda popped up deep into injury time.

Stoke had been gifted a 32nd-minute lead by an uncharacteristic misjudgement from Petr Cech, who was caught out of position and beaten by Abdoulaye Faye's looping header.

Didier Drogba equalised on the stroke of half-time and Chelsea's pressure finally told at the death.

Yossi Benayoun capped a superb all-round display with a hat-trick as Liverpool overran Burnley in a 4-0 win at Anfield. Dirk Kuyt was also on the mark as Rafael Benitez's side continued their recovery from a stuttering start to the campaign.

Blackburn claimed their first win of the season and climbed out of the relegation zone with an impressive 3-1 win over top-flight newcomers Wolves.

El Hadji Diouf gave Rovers a first-half lead and two goals in eight second-half minutes, from Jason Roberts and David Dunn, killed off Mick McCarthy's side.

Austrian striker Stefan Maierhofer marked his Wolves debut with a late consolation effort for the visitors.

Centre-back Gary Cahill scored an 89th-minute winner as Bolton claimed their first points of the season with a 3-2 win at Portsmouth, who are still pointless after five games.

A strike from Bolton's Israeli midfielder Tamir Cohen was cancelled out by Younes Kaboul's 25th-minute equaliser before former Pompey star Matt Taylor put Bolton ahead again from the penalty spot four minutes before the break.

Kevin Prince-Boateng marked his debut for Portsmouth with a second equaliser but Cahill finally sealed the points for Gary Megson's side a minute from time.

Sunderland's strong start to the season continued with a 4-1 win over Hull.

Kamil Zayatte had cancelled out Darren Bent's early penalty to ensure Hull were still on level terms at the break.

But Steve Bruce's side were too strong after the restart with an Andy Reid strike and a Zayatte own goal sandwiched around Bent's second of the afternoon.

Colombian striker Hugo Radallego claimed the only goal of the game as Wigan took the points against West Ham.

AFP