Patience pays for Arsenal

Arsenal FC strengthened their position at the top of the Premier League as they overcame Bolton Wanderers FC on a day that also brought Merseyside derby victory for Liverpool FC and three points for Manchester United FC and Chelsea FC.

Arsenal success
Second-half goals from Kolo Touré (67) and Tomáš Rosický (79) gave Arsenal their eleventh win in a row in all competitions as they defeated Bolton 2-0 at home to move three points clear at the top. Manchester United FC stayed two points behind with their seventh successive league win, coming from a goal down for a 4-1 victory at Aston Villa FC in the early-evening game despite falling behind to Gabriel Agbonlahor's 12th-minute header.

Rooney on song
Wayne Rooney scored on 35 and 43 minutes to turn the match on its head, however, and there was still time for Rio Ferdinand to make it 3-1 before the interval before Villa captain Nigel Reo-Coker was sent off in the 59th minute for a second yellow card. Villa goalkeeper Scott Carson was shown a red card for bringing down Tévez six minutes later and, although substitute Stuart Taylor saved Rooney's resulting penalty, Ryan Giggs rounded off a fine evening's work with a deflected fourth goal in the 74th minute.

Kuyt double
Manchester City FC stayed third with a 1-0 home win against Birmingham City FC, Elano Blumer scoring the only goal, while two second-half penalties from Dirk Kuyt enabled Liverpool come from behind to win the 206th Merseyside derby away to nine-man Everton FC. Sami Hyypiä's own goal gave the home side a 37th-minute lead but eight minutes into the second period Everton right-back Tony Hibbert was sent off for bringing down Steven Gerrard and Kuyt levelled from the spot. Liverpool eventually made their numerical advantage tell as Kuyt converted his second spot-kick in added time after Phil Neville had handled substitute Lucas Leiva's goal-bound shot to collect the home team's second red card of the afternoon.

Chelsea victory
Elsewhere, goals from Didier Drogba and Alex enabled Chelsea to win 2-0 at Middlesbrough FC. They stay seventh on the same number of points as Portsmouth FC and Blackburn Rovers FC, who won 2-0 and 4-2 against Wigan Athletic FC and Reading FC respectively. The afternoon's other game between Fulham FC and bottom side Derby County FC ended goalless.